Imbalance of hunger and wakefulness hormones linked to sleep problems and daily rhythms in untreated children with ADHD

Children with ADHD exhibited substantially higher eveningness chronotype and sleep disturbances compared to healthy controls.

• Forty-five drug-naïve ADHD patients were compared with 45 healthy controls in terms of chronotype and sleep habits.
• ADHD children reported significantly increased bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, night wakings, and daytime sleepiness (all p < 0.001).
• Serum levels of orexin-A, orexin-B, and leptin were significantly lower in the ADHD group (p < 0.001 for orexin-A; p = 0.039 for orexin-B; p = 0.012 for leptin).
• Conversely, serum ghrelin levels were significantly higher in ADHD children (p < 0.001).
• Ghrelin levels were positively associated with attention deficit scores, chronotype scores, and total sleep disturbance scores (all p < 0.01).
• Orexin-A/B and leptin levels were negatively correlated with attention deficit scores, chronotype scores, and sleep disturbances (all p < 0.05).

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