Adam Levine from the band Maroon 5 and hit TV show "The Voice" talks about his experiences with ADHD in Life and Style Weekly. The article also references other celebrities that have ADHD including Channing Tatum and Jennifer Aniston's fiance Justin Theroux.
Electric lighting 'prevents proper night's sleep'
This article published in The Telegraph describes research showing how light, especial blue light, can disrupt our circadian rhythms. Insomnia is common in ADHD, depression, and anxiety and this article reinforces why shutting down our electronics well before we go to bed is so important to getting to sleep.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10073379/Electric-lighting-prevents-proper-nights-sleep.html
A Graduate Student Beats Her Procrastination Challenge
A Graduate Student Beats Her Procrastination ChallengeThis is an excellent podcast from an excellent podcast series. The series is called "iProcrastinate" and is hosted by eminent procrastination researcher Dr. Pychyl.In this episode a listener describes how she has taken Dr. Pychyl's recommendations and applied them to her own procrastination. She provides a great summary of how she integrated a lot of different skills to help keep her on track when working. The whole series is worth listening to, but I found this podcast to be a particularly great summary.
Sleep 'cleans' the brain of toxins
I wanted to add one more article in my series of postings on sleep. This article describes the study that showed that when we sleep our brain cells shrink to allow more space for fluid to flow and clear the brain of waste material. They believe that the brain is not able to simultaneously focus on cleaning and wakeful thinking.So whether it's ADHD, anxiety, depression, or something else disrupting your sleep, there is more and more information becoming available about what you're missing out on and why it's important to treat insomnia seriously.You can read the BBC article here.
Dreams and myelination. "Sleep 'boosts brain cell numbers'"
Scientists are still unraveling all the reasons why we need sleep. The article "Sleep 'boosts brain cell numbers'" discusses how sleep helps with the vital process of building myelin, a material that surrounds parts of nerve cells and is vital to their proper functioning.More specifically, you may remember from your biology or psychology classes that nerves communicate to one another through electrical impulses and neurotransmitters. The receiving end of a nerve cell is usually the axon and this can range from a millimeter to as long as a meter long. Myelin electrically insulate the axon, significantly accelerating the speed of the signal.The article below talks about how the cells that make myelin double their production rate in mice as they slept. For more information about this as well as other neurological benefits of sleep, you can read the article from BBC news here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23932577.
Jet lag, sleep, and ADHD?
Continuing on the theme of sleep dysfunction, this article talks about new information on what is going on in the brain that contributes to jet lag. This is also relevant relevant to adults with ADHD because they often will have an irregular sleep cycle. Many people I work with find themselves staying up very late into the night and sleeping much of the day. The process of trying to reset your sleep schedule may have similarities to jet lag.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23880152'Molecular basis' for jet lag foundBy James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
Insomniacs' brains lose focus, scans suggest
Since insomnia and sleep issues commonly plays a role in ADHD, depression, and anxiety I wanted to share a few articles related to sleep. This if the first of 2 or 3. They are more general articles on sleep rather than specifically related to mental health.The quick summary is, per the article, "One of the researchers, Prof Sean Drummond, said: 'We found that insomnia subjects did not properly turn on brain regions critical to a working memory task and did not turn off 'mind-wandering' brain regions irrelevant to the task.'"You can read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23897665
A Brain Wave Diagnostic Test for ADHD?
The FDA recently approved marketing of a brain wave device for diagnosing ADHD. On 7/22/13 Martijn Arns, PhD of Utrecht University in The Netherlands wrote a blog clarifying what exactly that means. Most importantly, that only in "a minority of ADHD patients (~25-30%), this measure is consistently found to deviate" from non-ADHD patients.You can read the full blog titled "A Brain Wave Diagnostic Test for ADHD? " here: http://www.chaddleadershipblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-brain-wave-diagnostic-test-for-adhd.html
NPR, The Colbert Report, & the Myth of Multitasking
Researchers continue to find that multitasking actually makes tasks take longer rather than help you be more efficient with your time. For people with ADHD it supports the importance of learning skills and strategies to help reduce distractibility and maintain focus. NPR had a recent broadcast on the topic and noted that, “Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford University, says today's nonstop multitasking actually wastes more time than it saves—and he says there's evidence it may be killing our concentration and creativity too.”http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861382/the-myth-of-multitaskingOr for a more humorous take on the topic can watch this 5 minute video where Stephen Colbert comments on the NPR broadcast.http://www.hulu.com/watch/511789
ADHD and Sleep (or lack thereof...)
Dr. Thakkar wrote this interesting article in the New York Times about chronic sleep deficit and ADHD. A chronic lack of sleep can have such a strong effect on your ability to focus and concentrate that it can mimic ADHD. One of the most common complaints that my clients with ADHD have is their difficulty getting adequate sleep, so they're dealing with a double attention-deficit whammy. The good news is that cognitive behavior therapy can treat both of the conditions.Diagnosing the Wrong Deficit: Could what looks like A.D.H.D. be a sleep disorder in disguise?by Vatsal Thakkar, MD