Based on repeated observations with an infrared camera (called ARNICA and belonging to the Arcetri Observatory, Florence) attached on the NOT, young, variable stars were searched for. As many as 55 stars showed significant variations and 39 of these were not previously recognised as young stars. Many of these stars are quite faint and will probably end up as brown dwarfs. This result shows that variability is a common feature for low-mass as well as high mass stars contracting towards the main sequence and that variability investigations in the near infrared are useful in pin-pointing embedded young stars.