Researchers have found a genetic link between the nighttime production of the sleep hormone melatonin and ADHD symptom severity in children. The study enhances our understanding of the complexities associated with this prevalent neurodevelopmental condition. Sleep disturbances, including insomnia, restless sleep, and daytime drowsiness, are common in people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It has been hypothesized that people with this condition have a disrupted circadian rhythm. However, the exact mechanism connecting sleep problems and ADHD has remained elusive. that disruptions in melatonin secretion may contribute to the difficulties children with ADHD face in maintaining regular sleep patterns, a proxy for nighttime melatonin secretion. They also measured ADHD symptoms, children’s sleep behaviors, and polygenic risk scores (PRS), which are a way of estimating an individual’s predisposition to a particular disease or trait, based on the combined effect of many small genetic variations. After analyzing these measures, they found a statistically significant genetic correlation between lower melatonin secretion and higher ADHD risk. In the HBC cohort, kids with a higher genetic risk for reduced melatonin had more ADHD symptoms, especially inattention. While the kids with higher melatonin-related genetic risk had more delayed sleep onset (the time it takes to fall asleep), the analysis showed that this didn’t explain the link between genetics and ADHD symptoms. This suggests that the genetic effect is direct, rather than being solely due to poor sleep habits.
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Thursday, June 26, 2025