Association of Time in Bed, Social Jetlag, and Sleep Disturbances With Cognitive Performance in Children With ADHD.

Objectives: Children with ADHD commonly exhibit sleep disturbances, but there is limited knowledge about how sleep and sleep timing are associated with cognitive dysfunction in children with ADHD.

Methods: Participants were 350 children aged 5 to 12 years diagnosed with ADHD. Three sleep-related constructs-time in bed, social jetlag (i.e., discrepancy in sleep timing pattern between school nights and weekend nights), and sleep disturbances were measured using a caregiver-report questionnaire. Linear regression models assessed the associations between sleep-related constructs and cognitive performance.

Results: After adjustment for sociodemographic variables, there were few associations between time in bed or sleep disturbances and cognitive performance, however, greater social jetlag was negatively associated with processing speed (β = -.20, 95% CI [-0.35, -0.06]), visually-based reasoning (β = -.13, 95% CI [-0.27, 0.00]), and language-based reasoning (β = -.22, 95% CI [-0.36, -0.08]); all  < .05).

Conclusion: Social jetlag, but not time in bed or disturbances, was associated with lower cognitive performance among children with ADHD.