Kids with attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) have difficult lives. They have trouble focusing, their attention is almost always on two different things, and they are often very hyper. But, there are types of medication that can be taken to calm down the symptoms of ADHD, most commonly Adderall. These medications usually help the person with ADHD to be more focused and less hyper. But, there might be a downside to these medications. Scientists say that the medication taken for ADHD can harm their sleep. Is this a real downside to the medication and could it lead to new medication or, no medication at all? Let’s find out.

Multiple studies have been done on this topic. The first study that I am going to discuss was published in the scientific journal PubMed. In this study, a single blind comparative trial was done to test the hypothesis that children with ADHD are sleepy during the day. 34 children with ADHD, and 32 children without ADHD participated in a sleep study, followed by a sleep latency test. The results of the study found that total sleep time and sleep efficiency were similar with both groups, but children with ADHD were sleepier during the day than the children without ADHD. The results of the study also found that 50% of the children with ADHD had signs of sleep-disordered breathing, compared to 22% of the children without ADHD.

In my opinion, this study was done well. The scientists had a control group to compare the children with ADHD to, which makes it easier to understand the results. If this control group was not in place, then we would not know if children with ADHD had different sleep than children without ADHD. Although the study design was well, it did not mention a mechanism as to why children with ADHD are worse sleep than children without ADHD. It is possible that this could be due to the medication, or due to ADHD alone. Since there is no mechanism involved, this study does not answer weather ADHD medication harms sleep.

Another study on this topic was published this November in the journal Pediatrics. This study was an analysis of previous studies that studied the link between ADHD medications and sleep to determine the effect ADHD medications have on sleep. A total of 9 studies were included in this analysis, involving 246 children. The results of this analysis found that children with ADHD that took medication took longer to fall asleep and slept for shorter amounts of time than the children who had ADHD, but did not take any medication.

The most common medications that are given to patients with ADHD are stimulants, the number of children who are given this type of medication is high, about 3.5 million. The studies that were analyzed have contradictory results. Some studies suggest that the use of stimulant medication in kids with ADHD can cause insomnia, but another studies suggest that the use of stimulant medication can help kids sleep better.

In conclusion, it is hard to tell whether or not stimulant medication to treat symptoms of ADHD can cause sleep problems. Some studies say that it can cause sleep problems, while other studies say that they can actually help kids with ADHD sleep better. More research needs to be done to determine the solution to this problem. Therefore, the jury is still out on whether or not to keep using stimulant medication, or to develop a new medication.

Sources:

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/9650.html

http://www.taliahwaajidblog.org/rundown-adhd/

http://www.aappublications.org/news/2015/11/23/StimulantsADHD112315

http://www.livescience.com/52881-adhd-medications-harm-kids-sleep.html

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-disorders-problems/adhd-and-sleep