Actigraphy and parental ratings of sleep in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Study Objectives: To assess various sleep parameters in latency-aged childr en with ADHD and their normally developing peers through the use of multipl e steep measures. Design: Six sleep parameters were evaluated for two groups of children, ADH D and normal comparison. Each group consisted of 25 children (20 males, 5 f emales) who ranged in age from 7 to 11 years. All children underwent rigoro us diagnostic procedures and the ADHD subjects were selected only if they d isplayed pervasiveness in their symptomatology and were medication naive. P arents completed a retrospective questionnaire which evaluated sleep proble ms over the past six months. Additionally, each child wore an actigraph for seven consecutive nights, and the child's parents completed a sleep diary during this time period. Setting: N/A Patients or Participants: N/A Interventions: N/A Results: Based on the findings from the questionnaire, parents of children with ADHD reported significantly more sleep problems than parents of normal ly developing children. However, the majority of these sleep differences we re not verified through actigraphy or sleep diary data, with the exception of longer sleep duration for children with ADHD and parent reports that des cribe increased bedtime resistence. It was also found that child-parent int eractions during bedtime routines were more challenging in the ADHD group. Conclusions: Despite the possibility of intrinsic sleep problems such as lo nger sleep duration, results indicate that many of the sleep problems of ch ildren with ADHD may be due to challenging behaviours during bedtime routin es. The reason for discrepancies among sleep studies employing objective me asures as well as between retrospective and prospective measures are discus sed.