TUESDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Quiz time: Is it a good
idea for high school students to stay up later than usual
cramming for that final? New research suggests it's not: Sleep-
deprived studying appears to lead to worse results on tests and
also hurts academic performance, researchers report. The study
relies on the perceptions of students about how they performed
in school and on tests, not their actual grades. That means
there's no way to know if trading studying for sleep actually
lowers grades on average or has a smaller, less noticeable
effect. Still, the research does offer insight into the
disruptive power of choosing to study late and get less sleep
than usual, said study lead author Cari Gillen-O'Neel, a
graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"If you're sacrificing your sleep time, that is actually not
helpful. It seems like it's associated with worst functioning
the next day," she said, adding, "You should distribute study
time evenly across the days of the week and abso