Researchers suggest that there may be a stronger link between ADHD and sleep problems than hitherto believed, and that the two may not be completely separate issues after all.
Data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that approximately
Among the adult U.S. population, the National Institute of Mental Health report a
ADHD is typically characterized by hyperactivity, a short attention span, and difficulties in self-organization. Sometimes, the disorder can be accompanied by one or several other
Another concern that has been flagged up in relation to ADHD is the existence of
Mostly, ADHD and sleep disturbances have been treated as separate issues, but Prof. Sandra Kooij, from the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, believes that the two may be fundamentally interconnected.
Prof. Kooij explained for Medical News Today that, as a psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD, she has dealt with many cases in which the disorder seemed to be linked with sleep disturbances. This gave her the first impulse to look more closely into the connection.
She told us, “I am a psychiatrist specialized in adult ADHD since 1995, and from the beginning, the sleep problems that most people with ADHD suffer from intrigued me. Most of them had a similar pattern of late sleep onset, and difficulty getting up in the morning, leading to fatigue during daytime and role impairment.”
“Sleep duration was usually short due to school or work obligations in the morning. This sleep loss seemed to increase the severity of ADHD symptoms as well,” explained Prof. Kooij.
The researcher presented her findings yesterday at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress, held in Paris, France.
Prof. Kooij and her colleagues have reviewed several studies that point to a link between sleep disturbances and ADHD, and they suggest that the evidence so far offers a strong basis for further evaluation.
“If you review the evidence, it looks more and more like ADHD and sleeplessness are two sides of the same physiological and mental coin,” explains Prof. Kooij.
Prof. Kooij’s investigation has revealed several interesting facts about the presence of sleep disturbances in individuals diagnosed with ADHD, and many of those have led her to form her hypothesis.
She notes, in the first place, that the majority of people diagnosed with ADHD also exhibit a disturbed sleep pattern. The physiological aspects of sleep are also affected which, in turn, could lead to other, more severe health implications.
“[W]e started to measure the onset of the sleep hormone melatonin in [the] saliva of people with ADHD with and without sleep onset problems. We found that late sleepers had their onset of melatonin 1.5 hours later than normal, correlating with the late sleep pattern,” Prof. Kooij told MNT.
“[A]lso, their movement patterns and temperature during 24 hours were delayed,” she added. “The next question was which other physical processes might be delayed, and what this would mean for their health in general.”
People diagnosed with ADHD complain of a wealth of sleep disorders, such as:
restless legs syndrome , which is characterized by an urge to move one’s legs during a state of rest, which disrupts normal sleep patternssleep apnea , in which abnormal – and disruptive – pauses in breathing occur during sleep- various
circadian rhythm disturbances , referring to disruptions of the regular physiological cycle that naturally “times” sleep and wakefulness, includingdelayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS)
DSPS is characterized by an impossibility to fall asleep before the small hours and increased difficulty in waking up in the morning.
Prof. Kooij told us that these disturbances can intensify the risk of other conditions, including obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Some individuals with ADHD may therefore benefit from taking
“We now aim to prevent this potential negative cascade of events for people with ADHD with lifetime sleep problems by advancing the late sleep phase using melatonin at night and/or light therapy in the morning, and measuring the effects on blood pressure, glucose levels, heart rate, and other biomarkers,” Prof. Kooij told MNT.
Prof. Kooij and her team are conducting research to find out which treatment may be most helpful in the case of sleep disorders. “[W]e try to find out if a low dose of melatonin (0.5 milligrams) in the evening is as good as higher dosages (3 milligrams), and which is best: melatonin, placebo, or melatonin plus light therapy in the morning,” she told MNT.
She also shared with us some tips for managing sleep disturbances, advising that people concerned about their sleep patterns should “stop using the light of screens after 10 p.m.,” and that they should aim to “get up at the same time every morning, and if necessary, use a strong lamp to wake up [the] brain.”
Should the link between ADHD and sleep disorders, Prof. Kooij is interested in finding out which way the causal relationship lies.
“If the connection is confirmed, it raises the intriguing question: does ADHD cause sleeplessness, or does sleeplessness cause ADHD? If the latter, then we may be able to treat some ADHD by non-pharmacological methods, such as changing light or sleep patterns, and prevent the negative impact of chronic sleep loss on health.”
Prof. Sandra Kooij
She cautions that she and her colleagues do not suggest that disturbed sleep patterns are key to all ADHD diagnoses, but she still believes that the strong link requires more investigation.
“We don’t say that all ADHD problems are associated with these circadian patterns, but it looks increasingly likely that this is an important element,” she says.