Mobile sleep EEG suggests delayed brain maturation in adolescents with ADHD: A focus on oscillatory spindle frequency

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. Although data show ADHD is associated with sleep problems, approaches to analyze the association between ADHD and sleep electrophysiology are limited to a few methods with circumscribed foci.

Sleep EEG was analyzed by a mixed-radix FFT routine and power spectrum parametrization in adolescents with ADHD and adolescents not at-risk for ADHD. Spectral components of sleep EEG were analyzed employing a novel, model-based approach of EEG power spectra.

The DREEM mobile polysomnography headband was used to record home sleep EEG from 19 medication-free adolescents with ADHD and 29 adolescents not at-risk for ADHD (overall: N = 56, age range 14-19 years) and groups were compared on characteristics of NREM sleep.

Adolescents with ADHD exhibited lower frequency of spectral peaks indicating sleep spindle oscillations whereas adolescents not at-risk for ADHD showed lower spectral power in the slow sleep spindle and beta frequency ranges.

The observed between-groups difference might indicate delayed brain maturity unraveled during sleep in ADHD.