The sleep structure of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Objective To investigate the sleep structure of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) and the differences among subtypes of ADHD. Methods Ninety children with ADHD were diagnosed in Department of Neurology, the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics between June 2012 and June 2013, including 75 boys and 15 girls, 6-14 years old[(9.5±2.4) years old], and among them there were 55 cases of ADHD-combined type, 25 cases of ADHD-inattentive type, and 10 cases of ADHD-hyperactive impulsive type.Thirty healthy children whose age and sex matched with ADHD group, came from Beijing and the surrounding area, were selected as the healthy control group, including 23 boys and 7 girls, 6-14 years old [(9.2 ± 2.9) years old]. Two groups underwent full overnight sleep assessment. Results The latency of rapid eye movement(REM) in children with ADHD was (146.58±47.28) minutes, and the sleep latency was 19.00 minutes[(8.25-37.50)minutes]; while the latency of REM in healthy control group was(87.55±13.59) minutes, and the sleep latency was 9.00 minutes[(3.50-13.63)minutes]. Compared with healthy control group, children with ADHD demonstrated the increased latency REM and sleep latency, and decreased sleep efficiency, the increasing times of awakening and total duration, and these differences were all statistically significant(all P<0.05). The percentage of non-rapid eye movement(NREM) phase Ⅱ in ADHD hybrid was lower than the ADHD attention-deficit(t=2.012, P<0.05). Sleep latency in ADHD attention-deficit was longer than the ADHD hybrid(t=2.964, P<0.05). No statistical differences were found among the various types in other indicators.The prevalence of periodic limb movements in sleep(PLMS) was 27.78%(25/90 cases) in ADHD group and the prevalence of PLMS was 3.30% (1/30 cases) in the healthy control group.The diffe-rences in prevalence between 2 groups were statistically significant(χ2=8.053, P<0.05). Conclusions Children with ADHD significantly display more problems with sleep.Sleep latency and NREMⅡ are different between ADHD attention-deficit and ADHD hybrid. Key words: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Sleep structure; Child