SLEEP, ASTHMA, AND ADHD
Are asthma and sleep patterns connected? Can trouble sleeping affect an asthmatic’s condition? Can troubled sleep and asthma-related symptoms cause someone to develop the symptoms of ADHD? Yes, according to new research, which says that lack of sleep can affect symptoms of asthma, as well as increase the likelihood that a person will suffer from ADHD.
Researchers at the American College of Chest Physician’s Annual Meeting say that lack of sleep can play a role in both the day and night symptoms of asthma, and that sleep problems ranging from simple insomnia to sleep apnea can cause someone to have attention deficit disorder.
“You seem short of breath and it gets worse and worse and then suddenly you can’t breathe. It feels like somebody’s strangling you,” says Mary Kane an asthma patient.
But her problems may not be limited to just breathing.
New research presented at the American College of Chest Physician’s Annual Meeting shows asthmatics on the whole suffer significant sleep quality disturbances, and in turn, end up being sleepy during the daytime.
“So we have four-hundred-and-eighty-seven patients, which I believe makes it one of the largest trials to look at sleep and asthma. And we found that their sleep is pretty bad. A full 30% of them categorize their sleep as poor or bad,” says Dr. John Mastronarde, study researcher at Ohio State University.
50% of the patients studied reported waking up every night more than three times a week. The sleep disturbances translated into daytime sleepiness.
“We know from previous data in the literature that that has a significant consequence for public health. Folks who are sleepy in the day have a high risk for car accidents, poor performance at work, etc,” Mastronarde states.
There is also a chicken-egg scenario, in that the researchers found that not only does asthma create bad sleep, but that bad sleep can worsen an asthmatic’s breathing.
“If your sleep is worse and then it gets better the quality of asthma got better as well,” says Mastronarde.
Other research presented shows those with sleep apnea, a condition where a person stops breathing hundreds of times a night, have a greater tendency to suffer from attention deficit disorder.
Of the patients studied with moderate to severe attention problems, 60% had their ADHD resolved after being placed on CPAP. The researchers believe that it doesn’t just apply to sleep apnea, that any sleep problem can create ADHD-type symptoms.
Dr. Clifford Risk, the author of the study from the Marlboro Center for Sleep Disorders, says, “If they have ADHD the doctor should be asking them how their sleep is, whether they snore, have sleep apnea, or suffer from insomnia?”
ADHD symptoms were seen in patients with sleep apnea who had no prior history or evidence of ADHD. This implies that asthma, sleep and ADHD may be more closely related to each other than is presently understood.