Use of Ball Blanket in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder sleeping problems
Allan Hvolby1, Niels Bilenberg
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Region of Southern Denmark, Gl. Vardevej 101, 6715 Esbjerg N, Denmark. hvolby@dlgmail.dk
Insights
Weighted blankets, or Ball Blankets, significantly reduce the time it takes for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to fall asleep. This intervention improves sleep onset latency and reduces nighttime awakenings to levels comparable to healthy controls.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychiatry
- Sleep Medicine
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Background:
- Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience significant sleep disturbances.
- Sleep onset latency and nighttime awakenings are common issues impacting quality of life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of Ball Blankets in improving sleep parameters for children diagnosed with ADHD.
- To assess the impact of Ball Blanket use on ADHD symptom severity.
Main Methods:
- A case-control study involving 21 children (8-13 years) with ADHD and 21 healthy controls.
- Sleep was monitored using actigraphy and sleep diaries over 28 nights, with 14 nights involving a Ball Blanket intervention.
- Sleep latency, awakenings, total sleep time, and ADHD symptom load were measured.
Main Results:
- Ball Blanket use significantly reduced sleep onset latency in children with ADHD.
- Sleep parameters, including sleep onset latency and number of awakenings, improved to levels similar to the healthy control group.
- Teacher-rated ADHD symptoms showed a ~10% improvement in activity and attention.
Conclusions:
- Ball Blankets represent a relevant and effective non-pharmacological treatment for sleep onset latency in children with ADHD.
- A 14-day intervention with Ball Blankets improved sleep onset, reduced variability, and decreased awakenings.
- The use of Ball Blankets eliminated nights where children with ADHD spent over 30 minutes falling asleep.
Objectives:
Based on actigraphic surveillance, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom rating and sleep diary, this study will evaluate the effect of Ball Blanket on sleep for a sample of 8-13-year-old children with ADHD.
Design:
Case-control study.
Setting:
A child and adolescent psychiatric department of a teaching hospital.
Participants:
21 children aged 8-13 years with a diagnosis of ADHD and 21 healthy control subjects.
Intervention:
Sleep was monitored by parent-completed sleep diaries and 28 nights of actigraphy. For 14 of those days, the child slept with a Ball Blanket.
Main Outcome Measures:
The sleep latency, number of awakenings and total length of sleep was measured, as was the possible influence on parent- and teacher-rated ADHD symptom load.
Results:
The results of this study will show that the time it takes for a child to fall asleep is shortened when using a Ball Blanket. The time it takes to fall asleep when using the Ball Blanket is found to be at the same level as the healthy control subjects. Teacher rating of symptoms show an improvement in both activity levels and attention span of approximately 10% after using the Ball Blankets.
Conclusions:
The results of this study show that the use of Ball Blankets is a relevant and effective treatment method with regard to minimizing sleep onset latency. We find that the use of Ball Blankets for 14-days improves the time it takes to fall asleep, individual day-to-day variation and the number of awakenings to a level that compares with those found in the healthy control group. Furthermore, we find that the use of Ball Blankets significantly reduces the number of nights that the ADHD child spends more than 30 min falling asleep from 19% to 0%.
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