Sleep medicineOct 27, 2026

Helping mental health in neurodivergent adults with sleep and daily rhythm treatments

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Nov 2, 2026

Abstract

Autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD adults frequently experience sleep and circadian disruptions that impact their mental health.

Effective and scalable interventions for sleep disruptions in these groups are currently lacking.
A co-design approach is essential for developing suitable interventions.
Combining objective and subjective measurements of sleep with mental health data could shed light on their interrelations.
Understanding the sleep and circadian profiles of AuDHD individuals is identified as a critical research gap.

Simplified

Autistic, ADHD and AuDHD adults frequently experience sleep/circadian disruptions that impact their mental health. There is, however, a lack of effective and scalable interventions tailored for these groups that can address their treatment needs in this area. In this editorial, we summarise the challenge and propose a programme of basic science research that can inform the development of suitable interventions. We emphasise the importance of a co-design approach and of combining objective and subjective sleep/circadian measurement with mental health symptom data longitudinally to illuminate the within-person relations between sleep/circadian function and mental health. We highlight the need to better understand the sleep/circadian profiles of AuDHD individuals and their implications for mental health as a particularly critical gap.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View Full Text ↗

Helping mental health in neurodivergent adults with sleep and daily rhythm treatments

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief