Health
ADHD children may be chronically sleep deprived
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 16, 2009
Youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder sleep less than those who do not have this problem, and, when they do snooze, they get less REM sleep, according to a study in the March 1 Sleep.
"I do not believe that [lack of] sleep per se is the cause of ADHD, but it may make the symptoms worse in children with sleep problems," said Reut Gruber, PhD, lead author and director of the Attention, Behavior and Sleep Lab at Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal. "There are reports in the literature in which treating sleep problems led to improvement in ADHD symptoms, but I suspect that these results were seen in children with sleep apnea. More research needs to be done in order to determine if sleep affects ADHD children with no primary sleep disorder."
Researchers performed polysomnography on 15 children with ADHD and 23 healthy controls between the ages of 7 and 11. Parents also completed sleep questionnaires. On average, children with ADHD slept around 33 fewer minutes. They also had nearly eight fewer minutes of REM sleep.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/03/16/hlbf0316.htm.
