“Many people with MS experience sleep issues, and this is also common among military veterans. This program will provide information on managing sleep problems in veterans with MS and introduce VA resources. Dr. Tiffany Braley, an associate professor of Neurology and section head of Multiple Sclerosis at the University of Michigan Health, will be featured in this program.”
A groundbreaking study conducted by researchers from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, in collaboration with several international institutions, has revealed a crucial connection between melatonin secretion and the severity of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) symptoms in children. The findings, published in Psychiatry Research Communications, suggest that genetic variations affecting melatonin production may significantly contribute to the development and worsening of ADHD symptoms.
ADHD is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder affecting approximately 5% of children worldwide. Persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity characterize it. While it has long been known that children with ADHD often struggle with sleep disorders, the precise relationship between sleep and ADHD symptoms has remained unclear—until now.
The study, using data from the Hamamatsu Birth Cohort for Mothers and Children (HBC Study), which tracks children’s development from birth, revealed that children with genetic traits that reduce melatonin secretion at night exhibited more severe ADHD symptoms at age 8 to 9.
“Our findings indicate that disruptions in melatonin secretion may contribute to the difficulties children with ADHD face in maintaining regular sleep patterns,” said Associate Professor Nagahide Takahashi, the lead author and a clinical expert on ADHD. “This could potentially worsen their ADHD symptoms, creating a vicious cycle that can be challenging to break.”
This research has significant implications as it highlights the importance of good sleep habits for children with ADHD. These include consistent bedtime routines, limiting screen time before sleep, and increasing exposure to natural light during the day. Additionally, the study indicates that taking melatonin supplements could help manage ADHD symptoms, but more research is required to confirm its long-term effectiveness.
“This study represents a major advancement in comprehending the intricate relationship between sleep and neurodevelopmental disorders. As researchers delve deeper into these connections, parents and healthcare providers could discover fresh strategies to assist children with ADHD in better managing their symptoms.”
Sleep problems are more common in people with MS than in the general population, with around half of people with MS experiencing disturbed sleep. In this episode, we discuss common sleep problems and potential ways to improve sleep. We spoke with Professor Michael Banissy, who has written several books on the topic, and also caught up with TikTok star Jo, also known as the Yorkshire wife, to discuss her sleep issues.
Kelsie Full, PhD, MPH, a behavioural epidemiologist and assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Persistently unhealthy sleep, either not enough or too much, is associated with a significantly increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in a racially and economically diverse adult population, an international team of researchers has reported.
Suboptimal sleep duration is defined as sleeping fewer than seven hours or more than nine hours a night.
Previous studies have found that Black adults are more likely than their white counterparts to experience long-term, unhealthy sleep patterns, as well as a disproportionately high burden of diabetes. Low-income people also are more likely to sleep poorly and develop diabetes.
The current study was based on questionnaires completed by approximately 36,000 adult participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study, which follows the health of a racially and economically diverse group of people in 12 south-eastern states. Most members of the cohort were recruited through community health centers.
Unlike prior studies, which were conducted in predominantly white or exclusively Chinese populations with sleep assessment at a single point in time, approximately 62% of participants in the current study were Black, and their sleep durations were reported in two separate surveys administered an average of five years apart.
“One of the main strengths of our study was that we focused on long-term sleep pattern rather than one-time measurement,” noted Xiao, associate professor of epidemiology, human genetics, and environmental sciences at the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health.
“Moreover, we conducted the study in a large cohort of predominantly low-income and Black populations, which have been traditionally understudied in health research,” she said. “By focusing on longitudinal sleep patterns, we demonstrated the importance of maintaining a healthy sleep pattern over time for metabolic health.”
The strongest association with diabetes was found among participants reporting more extreme changes and higher variability in their sleep durations. Highly variable periods of sleep have been linked in other studies to poorer control of blood glucose levels, as well as to obesity and diabetes.
The current findings “suggest that a highly variable sleep duration in disadvantaged populations may be an important contributing factor to racial and socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic health,” the researchers concluded.
While an abnormally long sleep duration may not directly cause diabetes, it may reflect the presence of other diabetes risk factors, including diabetes-related fatigue. As such, “long sleep is still an important behavioral predictor of diabetes risk that may be used for risk prediction and disease screening,” they added.
The authors recommended further investigation to identify social and environmental factors, such as living in stressful, disadvantaged neighborhoods, which can disrupt normal, healthy sleep, and how sleep disruption may contribute to racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes.
“Intervention studies are also needed to evaluate whether improving sleep health may reduce health disparities in the USA,” they wrote.
