Adults With ADHD Experience Sleep-Like Brain Waves While Awake
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects almost 7% of adults worldwide, but although it is a common neurological disorder, there is still much we don’t know about it. For example, what happens in the brains of people with ADHD when they experience lapses in attention? New research published in JNeurosci suggests that sleep-like brain activity could be the cause.
To get a glimpse of what’s happening in the brains of people with ADHD, a research team led by neuroscientist Elaine Pinggal of Monash University in Australia strapped 32 adults with ADHD who had stopped taking their medications into an EEG machine. While their brains were scanned, participants were asked to complete a series of tasks requiring their sustained attention.
So how did it go?
Compared to the neurotypical control group, the ADHD group experienced more periods of slow-wave brain activity, similar to the delta waves that characterize deep sleep. These sleep patterns were associated with lapses in attention, higher error rates, slower reaction times and increased instances of sleepiness.
Read more: “Even machine brains need sleep”
To be clear, people with ADHD didn’t doze off in the middle of a task. Instead, their brain waves appeared to briefly mimic a sleep state when they were awake, a phenomenon known as “local sleep.”
“Sleep-like brain activity is a normal phenomenon that occurs during demanding tasks,” Pinggal said in a statement. “In people with ADHD, however, this activity occurs more frequently, and our research suggests that this increase in sleep-like activity may be a key brain mechanism that helps explain why these people have more difficulty maintaining consistent attention and performance during tasks.”
The findings could open new avenues of treatment for people with ADHD, including through cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Better quality sleep may reduce sleep-like brain activity that robs attention during the day, researchers say.
It’s easier said than done, but getting a better night’s sleep is a worthy goal, whether you have ADHD or not.
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