Journal of Attention Disorders, Ahead of Print.
Objective:Children and adults with ADHD often report sleep disturbances that may form part of the etiology and/or symptomatology of ADHD. We review the evidence for sleep changes in children with ADHD.Methods:Systematic review with narrative synthesis assessing sleep and circadian function in children aged 5 to 13 years old with a diagnosis of ADHD.Results:148 studies were included for review, incorporating data from 42,353 children. We found that sleep disturbances in ADHD are common and that they may worsen behavioral outcomes; moreover, sleep interventions may improve ADHD symptoms, and pharmacotherapy for ADHD may impact sleep.Conclusion:Sleep disturbance may represent a clinically important feature of ADHD in children, which might be therapeutically targeted in a useful way. There are a number of important gaps in the literature. We set out a manifesto for future research in the area of sleep, circadian rhythms, and ADHD.