- Sleep and circadian disruptions are prevalent in autistic, ADHD and AuDHD adults and substantially exacerbate mental health problems.
- There is a lack of effective, scalable interventions tailored to neurodivergent adults to address sleep and circadian treatment needs.
- Use co-designed, longitudinal objective and subjective measurement to illuminate within-person relations between sleep, circadian function and mental health, focusing on AuDHD.
Sleep Med. 2026 Sep 12:109267. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2026.109267. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Autistic, ADHD and AuDHD adults frequently experience sleep/circadian disruptions that impact their mental health. There is, however, a lack of effective and scalable interventions tailored for these groups that can address their treatment needs in this area. In this editorial, we summarise the challenge and propose a programme of basic science research that can inform the development of suitable interventions. We emphasise the importance of a co-design approach and of combining objective and subjective sleep/circadian measurement with mental health symptom data longitudinally to illuminate the within-person relations between sleep/circadian function and mental health. We highlight the need to better understand the sleep/circadian profiles of AuDHD individuals and their implications for mental health as a particularly critical gap.
PMID:42946618 | DOI:10.1016/j.sleep.2026.109267
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