(NaturalPath) According to a study out of Aarhus University in Denmark and published in the Journal of Sleep Research, there is some truth to the claim by parents of children with ADHD that their children have a more difficulty falling asleep and that they sleep more poorly than other children.
Previous studies have shown that up to seventy percent of parents of children with ADHD report that the children have difficulty falling asleep and that they spend a long time putting them to bed. However, scientific studies that measure sleep quality using electrodes have so far failed to demonstrate a correlation between sleep quality and ADHD. But this Danish study introduces new information. The researchers noted that none of the children in the study received medicine to help them fall asleep.
“Our study will confirm what many parents have experienced, which is that children with ADHD take longer to fall asleep at night. With our measurements we can also see that these children experience more disturbed sleep including less deep sleep. If you only look at length of sleep, children in the ADHD group sleep for 45 minutes less than children in the control group,” said the main researcher.
These results changed during the day. “Unlike in the evening we could see that there was a tendency for the children with ADHD to fall asleep faster during the day than the children in the control group. This is somewhat surprising when you take into account that ADHD is associated with characteristics such as hyperactivity. But this hyperactivity could be compensatory behavior for not being able to doze off during the day,” the researcher said.
Now that physicians and parents know that the sleep issues are correlated to the ADHD diagnosis it sets the stage to better understand the correlation and find solutions.
Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.