Children need a daily routine to succeed at school Martina Milburn, the chief executive of the Prince's Trust, said: "The absence of structure and routine in a young life can have a devastating impact. Without the right support, directionless teenagers can become lost young adults - unconfident, underqualified and unemployed. Teachers have complained that growing numbers of children turn up to lessons too tired to concentrate after spending the previous night watching television or playing computer games and child development experts have warned that the influence of screen-based technology on the brains of young children can harm their prospects for success at school. The Prince's Trust finds that a quarter of the 2,136 young people aged 16 to 25 in the survey claim they did not have a set bedtime while growing up. This rose to 39 per cent among those who left school with fewer than five A*-C grades at GCSE. Young people with poorer grades were also more than twice as likely as their peers to say they did not have regular meal times. The study also finds that unemployed young people are losing hope for the future, with 51 per cent saying they were confident of finding work, down from 54 per cent last year. More than half the young people who were out of work and not in education or training claimed they "often" or "always" felt depressed, compared with 28 per cent of their peers who had jobs or were studying. Ms Milburn said that the charity ran clubs in schools to give disaffected young people "intense, structured support" to prevent them dropping out of education or being excluded from class. It also provided after school "one-to-one" sessions with mentors to help young people improve their self-esteem.