Diagnosing the Wrong Deficit

Key insight: sleep disorder, in particular insufficient delta sleep, may cause symptoms similar to ADHD

   The patient didn’t have A.D.H.D., I realized, but a chronic sleep deficit. 

   A number of studies have shown that a huge proportion of children with an 
   A.D.H.D. diagnosis also have sleep-disordered breathing like apnea or 
   snoring, restless leg syndrome or non-restorative sleep, in which delta 
   sleep is frequently interrupted.

   One study, published in 2004 in the journal Sleep, looked at 34 children 
   with A.D.H.D. Every one of them showed a deficit of delta sleep, 
   compared with only a handful of the 32 control subjects.