Does your child really have ADHD? Or, has your child been misdiagnosed with ADHD because he or she is displaying symptoms that are brought on by poor bedtime habits? A study shows that there are many children who don’t truly have ADHD, but appear to have it, due to not having enough sleep.
A study was done that was based on a survey given to 704 parents. The parents had children who were between the ages of 2 and 13. Most of the parents who filled out the survey were mothers. All parents were randomly selected to fill out a brief questionnaire while they were waiting for their child to be seen by a pediatrician.
The survey results strongly suggest that kids who have certain situations going on at bedtime are much more likely to have behavior problems. One contributing factor is the lack of having a set bedtime. Another issue is if children are sharing a bed with their parents, or with other siblings. In short, these are the kids who are experiencing a lack of sleep.
The kids who had a regular bedtime, and who were sleeping in a bed by themselves, got much more sleep than the other group of children did. As a result, the kids who lacked sleep displayed certain types of problematic behaviors that were not as common in the group of kids who slept well.
These types of behaviors included things like throwing tantrums, or having meltdowns. This group of kids would hit, kick, or push their parents. The children had low self-confidence.
The parents of these children received notes from their child’s school that described the bad behaviors that their son or daughter was doing at school that day. Many of these parents were advised that their kids should take medications that were designed to help with behavior or learning problems.
Many of these symptoms are present in children who truly have ADHD. This lead psychologists to misdiagnose the kids who lacked sleep with having ADHD.
The survey, however, reveals that there was a really strong association between kids who were bed sharing, and who did not have a set bedtime, with that list of problem behaviors. The sleepy kids were doing those behaviors eight to ten times more frequently than were the kids who got enough sleep.
Now, this does not mean that you can “cure” your child’s ADHD simply by making sure that he or she has a set bedtime, and is getting a good amount of sleep every night. Instead, the survey shows that kids who have behavior problems, (due to lack of sleep), are getting misdiagnosed with ADHD. It also shows that parents choices regarding bedtime can have a big affect on their child’s behavior.
Image by Scott McLeod on Flickr