News Author: Caroline Cassels
CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd
May 6, 2009 — Inadequate sleep in children appears to be an independent risk factor for behavioral symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research suggests.
In a cross-sectional study of 7- to 8-year-old children, investigators at the University of Helsinki, Finland, found that short sleepers — those who got less than 7.7 hours of sleep per night — were significantly more likely to be hyperactive/inattentive compared with children who were moderate or longer sleepers.
"There is a large amount of literature linking sleeping difficulties to behavioral symptoms. However, this study shows short sleep duration itself is related to behavioral symptoms, independent of sleeping difficulties," principal investigator E. Juulia Paavonen, MD, PhD, told Medscape Psychiatry.
The study is published online April 27 in Pediatrics.
National Problem
It is estimated that up to one-third of children in the United States suffer from inadequate sleep, suggesting it may be a "nationally significant problem," said Dr. Paavonen. This is true not only in the United States, she added, but also in Finland, where research has shown that Finnish children sleep less than children elsewhere in Europe, suggesting inadequate sleep may be a particular problem in this country.
Previous studies have shown that ADHD is often associated with sleep
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