Intraindividual variability of sleep/wake patterns in adolescents with and without attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Jun 25, 2019Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines

Day-to-day differences in sleep and wake patterns in teenagers with and without ADHD

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Abstract

Adolescents with ADHD exhibit greater variability in sleep/wake patterns compared to their peers without ADHD.

Adolescents with ADHD showed increased variability in time in bed, sleep onset and offset, and wake after sleep onset according to actigraphy data.
Sleep diary data indicated that those with ADHD had more variability in bedtime, wake time, sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep quality, and night wakings.
Social jetlag was identified as a significant predictor of variability in sleep measures for both groups.
ADHD status did not correlate with social jetlag, suggesting that other factors may contribute to sleep variability.
This study highlights the need for clinicians to monitor variability in sleep/wake patterns in adolescents with ADHD.

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BACKGROUND: Prior studies examining the sleep of adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have relied on mean values such as average sleep duration, which masks intraindividual variability (IIV). The objective was to investigate whether adolescents with ADHD have greater IIV of sleep/wake patterns than adolescents without ADHD using actigraphy and daily sleep diaries.

METHOD: Adolescents (ages 13.17 ± 0.40 years; 45% female) with (n = 162) and without (n = 140) ADHD were recruited from middle schools at two sites. Participants wore actigraphs and completed sleep diaries for an average of 2 weeks.

RESULTS: Multilevel models were conducted with sex, sleep medication use, ADHD medication use, number of days with data, and social jetlag controlled for in analyses. For actigraphy, adolescents with ADHD had greater variability for time in bed, sleep onset and offset, and wake after sleep onset than adolescents without ADHD. For sleep diary data, adolescents with ADHD had greater variability in bedtime, wake time, sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep quality, and night wakings than adolescents without ADHD. Social jetlag was a significant predictor of variability in sleep measures based on both actigraph and daily diaries; however, ADHD status was not associated with social jetlag.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show that adolescents with ADHD have more variable sleep/wake patterns than their peers using both objective and subjective sleep measures. IIV of sleep/wake patterns may be important for clinicians to assess and monitor as part of treatment. Research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying increased IIV of sleep/wake patterns in adolescents with ADHD and potential consequences for daytime functioning.

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Intraindividual variability of sleep/wake patterns in adolescents with and without attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

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