Sleep may matter more than screen time or diet for adolescents' grades, study finds

Summer offers students a rare chance to recover from the pressures of the school year, allowing them to catch up on the rest that demanding schedules often leave little time for. Sleep is key for the correct functioning of the body; however, data shows that adolescents are not getting all the sleep they need and this may be harming their mental health and, in turn, their performance at school.A new study found that sleep may play a greater role in adolescents' education and personal life than screen time, exercise or diet, especially among those suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges. "We expected sleep to be important, but we didn't expect it to stand out so clearly above other lifestyle factors, particularly screen time,” said Jason Smucny, the study's first author at the University of California, Davis in the United States.