Research has shown that household chaos can significantly impact sleep quality, particularly in teens with ADHD symptoms. A chaotic home environment—characterized by noise, disorganization, and high levels of stress—can exacerbate sleep disturbances, making it harder for these teens to settle down and get restorative sleep. Poor sleep quality, in turn, can worsen ADHD symptoms, leading to a cycle of increased difficulty in focusing, mood instability, and behavioral issues.
A recent study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting discovered that household turmoil and sleep hygiene play crucial roles in the link between sleep quality and ADHD symptoms in teenagers.
The results of structural equation modeling reveal that family chaos and sleep hygiene are important mediators of the association between ADHD symptoms and poor sleep quality. The findings indicate that enhancing daily routine and family stability is an important technique to consider when attempting enhancing sleep quality in teenagers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.
These results begin to explicate some contextual factors that may help explain the increase in sleep difficulties observed in youth with higher symptoms of ADHD.
Jamie Flannery
“These results begin to explicate some contextual factors that may help explain the increase in sleep difficulties observed in youth with higher symptoms of ADHD,” said lead author and co-principal investigator Jamie Flannery, who is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “It suggests that when ADHD symptoms are high, aspects of the individual — poor sleep hygiene — and the familial environment — household chaos — are associated with poor sleep quality in adolescents.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers 13 to 18 years of age should sleep 8 to 10 hours. Healthy sleep is associated with better health outcomes including: improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health.
The researchers collected data from 259 pairs of mothers and adolescents from across the U.S. Mothers used a scale to rate the severity of their adolescent’s ADHD symptoms, while adolescents completed three separate surveys about sleep quality, home environment and sleep hygiene.
Flannery noted that it’s important for adolescents and their families to know that it is more than just individual characteristics that can impact their sleep.
“While improving sleep hygiene in youths with ADHD may be beneficial, a household characterized by a lack of structure, routine and stability may undermine the adolescent’s sleep quality,” Flannery said.
Research has shown that household chaos can significantly impact sleep quality, particularly in teens with ADHD symptoms. A chaotic home environment—characterized by noise, disorganization, and high levels of stress—can exacerbate sleep disturbances, making it harder for these teens to settle down and get restorative sleep. Poor sleep quality, in turn, can worsen ADHD symptoms, leading to a cycle of increased difficulty in focusing, mood instability, and behavioral issues.
