ADHD and Sleep
A recent study at Harvard Medical School in Boston showed - surprisingly - that the use of stimulant medication in the past year was not associated with sleep problems in children and adolescents with ADHD. There were 225 children with and without ADHD in the study followed for one year. The children with ADHD (ages 6 to 17) were indeed much more likely to have insomnia than other children their age, but the sleep problems were occuring equally in those ADHD kids who took medication and those that did not.
Investigators did find a significant increase in behavioral problems among children who have ADHD and insomnia. Intuitively parents know that lack of sleep worsens behavioral problems for their children and this study strongly supports that not sleeping is truly a major risk factor for bad behavior. In fact this Harvard study reports that kids with ADHD who have sleep problems have significantly higher levels of behavioral difficulties than those non-ADHD kids with insomnia.
The message to all parents is that sleep is a major factor in reducing behavioral problems, but especially for those children with ADHD!
Try melatonin as a natural supplement known to improve sleep quality for children with ADHD. Prior research shows a 45 min earlier onset of sleep in ADHD kids who also took melatonin.
Last 5 posts by Dr. Theresa Cerulli
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