The importance of 'sleep routines'
A recent journal article dives into what we ND folks know all too well, routine is vital to life. The article features a study that examined the association between sleep characteristics and cognitive performance in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here are the key points:
Sleep disturbances are very common in children with ADHD, with 40-70% experiencing some form of sleep problems. These sleep issues tend to correlate with more severe “ADHD symptoms.”
The study involved 350 children aged 5-12 diagnosed with ADHD. It looked at their time spent in bed, sleep disturbances, and “social jetlag” - the discrepancy in sleep timing between school nights and weekends.
Sleep time and sleep disturbances were not associated with cognitive performance. However, greater “social jetlag” correlated with poorer scores on tests of processing speed, visual reasoning, and language-based reasoning.
The average “social jetlag” was 1 hour. The researchers suggest that inconsistent sleep routines between school days and weekends may disrupt circadian rhythms and hurt cognition in children with ADHD.
They conclude that keeping regular sleep schedules could potentially improve learning and attention in these children. Delaying school start times has also been shown to reduce social jetlag.
I’ve written quite a bit here on the problems we ND folks tend to have with sleep. The topic is woven throughout my work, but here’s a few articles dedicated to the topic to catch you up:
A bit about the sample used in the study
The article provides some details about the composition of the sample, and it’s about what you’d expect to find in an ADHD study. The study involved 350 children diagnosed with ADHD, aged between 5 and 12. Of these participants, 71% were boys, and 74% had commercial medical insurance. Additionally, 56% were White.
Indeed, the biased characteristics of this sample are problematic. The conclusions around “social jetlag,” sleep consistency, and cognitive performance may not hold true for females, non-White children, or economically-disadvantaged kids with ADHD.
Before applying these findings more broadly, it would be important to replicate this study with a more diverse and representative sample. Getting data on non-White children, girls, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds would improve generalisability tremendously.