The Awake "Sleep" Loop: Why Attention Lapses Occur in ADHD
13 hours ago
- #ADHD
- #Sleep Research
- #Neuroscience
- The study explores the phenomenon of 'local sleep,' where sleep-like slow waves appear in specific brain regions during wakefulness, causing brief attention lapses.
- Adults with ADHD exhibited significantly more sleep-like brain activity during tasks compared to neurotypical adults, which correlated with attention lapses, errors, and slower reaction times.
- Increased sleep-like activity in ADHD may mediate the link between sleep disturbances and attentional difficulties, suggesting a porous boundary between awake and sleep states.
- Auditory stimulation during sleep to enhance slow waves might reduce daytime sleep-like activity, offering a potential non-drug treatment avenue for ADHD.
- The research involved 32 adults with ADHD (off medication) and 31 neurotypical controls, using EEG to measure brain activity during sustained attention tasks.