Circadian Rhythms and ADHD and Sleeplessness

After listening to Dr. Dan Cavanaugh's research on circadian rhythm, where he described an important relationship between sleep and circadian rhythms, which if aligned results in beautiful restful sleep. Sleep, Dr. Cavanaugh defined is when there is no conscious responsiveness of a person and very little physical movement throughout the duration of sleep. Dr. Cavanaugh interesting related sleep with coma but there is a vital difference, which is; during coma a person loses the ability to wake up due to some neurological damage whereas during a normal sleep a person is able to wake up to a strong external stimulus. Circadian rhythm have a huge impact on our body, it can be easily defined as our internal clock which tells the body when to fall asleep and when to wake up. Circadian rhythm develops constants sleep patterns and regulates the secretion of melatonin at a constant level to accommodate constant sleep patterns. However, if our sleep times are not constant and the pattern of our sleep is irregular, according to Dr. Cavanaugh this results in negative impact on our circadian rhythm which in turn is responsible for the regulating sleep. 

Reading an article on ScienceDaily.com about a connection between Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); according to Professor Sandra Kooij who presented her study at the ECNP Conference in Paris said that: "There is extensive research showing that people with ADHD also tend to exhibit sleep problems. What we are doing here is taking this association to the next logical step: pulling all the work together leads us to say that, based on existing evidence, it looks very much like ADHD and circadian problems are intertwined in the majority of patients." 

Interestingly, Professor Kooij said that 75% of ADHD patients experience sleeplessness.  Professor Kooij outlined that ADHD people often show greater alertness in the evening, which is the opposite of what is found in the general population. Finally, Professor Kooij stated what she will be looking into and asks a question "We are working to confirm this physical-mental relationship by finding biomarkers, such as Vitamin D levels, blood glucose, cortisol levels, 24 hour blood pressure, heart rate variability, and so on. If the connection is confirmed, it raises the intriguing question: does ADHD cause sleeplessness, or does sleeplessness cause ADHD?"

Both Dr. Cavanough and Professor Kooij highlighted that lack of sleep results in actual phenomenon called chronic sleep debt which can lead to many deleterious health problems. I find these two talk about circadian rhythm and sleep being disturbed by ADHD very interesting because considering these psychological sleep problems and abnormalities are a huge a problem for ADHD patients which one can think leads to many other long term diseases such as weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. 

Dr. Dan Cavanaugh 

Circadian Rhythms and Sleep in Drosophila Melanogaster 

Professor Sandra Kooij 

European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. "Is ADHD really a sleep problem?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 September 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170904093443.htm>.