Sleep and sleep hygiene of adolescents with and without ADHD during COVID-19

Restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic may have significantly impacted adolescents’ sleep, possibly even more so in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current study examines the sleep of adolescents without ADHD (TD) and a homogeneous group of adolescents with ADHD and comorbid sleep problems using a multi-method objective and subjective assessment of sleep outcomes, during few and multiple COVID-19 restrictions. Four groups (2 TD and 2 ADHD) of in total 100 adolescents (50 TD and 50 ADHD) were included. One ADHD group was tested during numerous COVID-19 restrictions, the other during few. The same was done with the two TD groups. All participants were between 13 and 17 years old. Three two-way MANCOVAs were implemented with ADHD diagnosis and level of COVID-19 restrictions as independent and sleep outcomes (sleep hygiene, sleep deprivation, and objective and subjective total sleep time (TST) and sleep onset latency (SOL)) as dependent variables. As expected, adolescents with ADHD and comorbid sleep problems had significantly more subjective and objective sleep problems. Additionally, COVID-19 restrictions were related to sleep outcomes in both TD and ADHD groups, with both objective TST and subjective SOL being shorter when there were numerous COVID-19 restrictions. However, the shorter SOL was only found in the ADHD group. COVID-19 restrictions are related to sleep in adolescents, and more so in the ADHD group. Future research should focus on mechanisms underlying these relations.