Abstract
The current study investigated the link between poor sleep and ADHD symptomatology. The effects of extending versus restricting sleep on subjective (questionnaires) and objective (actigraphy) measures of daytime movement were examined in 25 typically developing children aged 8–12 years. Subjective measures demonstrated an increase in ADHD symptomology following sleep restriction, with follow-up analyses indicating that findings were due to poorer attention, not changes in hyperactivity. The results of actigraphy data indicated that there were no differences found for mean or median daytime activity, but the standard deviation of activity was found to be significantly higher following sleep restriction. Contrary to the popular belief that sleep restriction results in increased overall activity, this study instead found an increase in variability of activity. This suggests that a sleep-restricted child’s activity level may appear as alternating periods of high and low activity levels throughout the day.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all of the children and parents who participated in this study. We would also like to thank the research assistants (Sunny Shaffner, Alyssa Beaudette, Jessica Waldon, Ashton Parker, Sarah Melkert, Jill Tonet, and Kait Sullivan) for their work on this study. This research was supported by the Dalhousie University Psychiatry Research Fund.
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Poirier, A., Gendron, M., Vriend, J. et al. The impact of sleep restriction on daytime movement in typically developing children. ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord 8, 53–58 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-015-0180-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-015-0180-3