Men who suffer from insomnia or sleep for short periods of time are at risk of an early death, a new study suggests.

The study, reported in the September 1 issue of the journal Sleep, found that men who had serious sleep problems were much more likely to die over a 14 year period.

No major link between insomnia and mortality rates was found in women but women in the study were only followed for 10 years compared to 14 and were younger, with an average age of 47 at the start of the study compared to the average male age of 50.

A history of bad behaviour in youth raises the risk of dying at a young age and not just from car crashes and drunken pub brawls, a new study suggests.

The finding comes from a UK study that followed 411 boys from South London in 1961 when they were either eight or nine years old.

Those who displayed antisocial behaviour at age 10 such as skipping school or being dishonest and were then convicted of a crime by the age of 18 had a one in six chance (16.3%) of being either dead or disabled before they 48.