Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Not Yet Recruiting

NCT Number: NCT07684417

Impact of Short and Mistimed Sleep on Adolescents With ADHD: The Adolescent Attention and Circadian Timing Study

Many adolescents go to bed late and wake up early for school. Science is only beginning to understand how sleep schedules can affect them. The investigators are interested in whether changing adolescents' sleep patterns affects their functioning, attention, and how they feel. The investigators are especially interested in the effects of changing both how much sleep adolescents get and when that sleep happens.

This study focuses on healthy 13-17-year-olds with ADHD. This study asks adolescents to systematically change their sleeping habits across a 3 week span. The first week, they follow a sleep schedule that fits reasonably well with the schedule they keep when they do not have to wake up early for any specific obligation (e.g., for school). The second week, they spend several nights in a "short sleep" condition, during which they get 6.5 hours in bed per night. The final week, they enter a sleep condition that allows for healthy sleep duration, but with a timing that is randomly assigned to either fit well with their preferred schedule or fit poorly with that schedule. During each week, they and their parents complete measures of their attention and other factors. At the end of each week, they attend an evening session to measure their internal body clock ("circadian phase"), as well as measures of attention and other thinking skills. The goal is to understand whether the benefits of healthy sleep duration depend on the timing of when that sleep occurs.

Not Yet Recruiting

Trial opening soon.

Get Notified

Key information

Conditions

ADHD Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Mental Disorders Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Age range

13 year–17 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229, United States

Location contact

Dean Beebe, Ph.D.

CONTACT

[email protected]

513-636-3489

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Ages 13-17 years at time of informed consent/assent
  • Based on semi-structured clinical interview, participants must meet full DSM-5 criteria for ADHD inattentive or ADHD combined presentation.

Exclusion criteria

  • Non-traditional school setting (morning-afternoon Monday-Friday).
  • Exclusionary diagnoses. We will exclude adolescents with known intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, psychosis, bipolar disorder, or neurologic conditions (e.g., epilepsy), per caregiver-report.
  • Exclusionary sleep disorders. We will exclude adolescents with symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea or periodic limb movement disorder based on published cutoffs on a validated questionnaire.
  • High caffeine intake. To promote adherence to directives not to consume caffeine the day of office visits without withdrawal effects, adolescents with daily intake of >1 coffee or "energy drink" or >2 caffeinated sodas per day based on caregiver- and adolescent-report will be excluded.
  • Unwillingness or inability to take part in study procedures (e.g., visits, prescribed sleep conditions).
  • Medication use or unwillingness to discontinue melatonin and/or stimulant medications during the 3-week study protocol.
  • Refusal to refrain from automobile driving during the sleep restriction condition.
  • "Intermediate" Chronotypes (neither morning larks nor night owls) based on habitual sleep timing on nights when adolescent has no morning obligations such as school or work.

Treatment and study plan

Aligned sleep extension

Behavioral

Timing of extended sleep condition is randomly assigned to fit with participant's chronotype

Misaligned sleep extension

Behavioral

Timing of extended sleep condition is randomly assigned to fit poorly with participant's chronotype

Primary outcomes

  1. Caregiver- and Adolescent-Reported Symptoms of Inattention

    Time frame: Daily throughout each participant's involvement in the study, up to 3 weeks

    Daily diary listing symptoms of inattention adapted from the IOWA Conners Questionnaire. Adolescents will self-report their own symptoms for the previous day. Parents/caregivers will report on their observations of the adolescents' symptoms for the previous day. Higher scores indicate greater inattention.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Caregiver- and Adolescent-Reported Internalizing Symptoms (depression, anxiety)

    Time frame: Each office visit during the participant's involvement. Office visits are spaced 1 week apart, for up to three visits.

    Retrospective report of internalizing symptoms based on the Vanderbilt questionnaire across 5 days the previous week. Adolescents will self-report their own symptoms. Parents/caregivers will report on their observations of the adolescents' symptoms. Higher scores indicate greater internalizing symptoms.

  2. Caregiver- and Adolescent-Reported Emotional Dysregulation

    Time frame: Each office visit during the participant's involvement. Office visits are spaced 1 week apart, for up to three visits.

    Retrospective report of symptoms of Emotion Dysregulation (e.g., emotional responses stronger than is called for by a situation) across 5 days the previous week. Previously validated by the investigators against established measures of long-term emotion regulation, this form focuses on a shorter (5-day) period. Adolescents will self-report their own symptoms. Parents/caregivers will report on their observations of the adolescents' symptoms. Higher scores indicate greater dysregulation.

  3. Caregiver- and Adolescent-Reported Impulsivity

    Time frame: Each office visit during the participant's involvement. Office visits are spaced 1 week apart, for up to three visits.

    Retrospective report of internalizing symptoms based on the Vanderbilt questionnaire across 5 days the previous week. Adolescents will self-report their own symptoms. Parents/caregivers will report on their observations of the adolescents' symptoms. Higher scores indicate greater internalizing symptoms.

  4. Sleep Period Duration

    Time frame: Nightly throughout study participation (around 3 weeks)

    Nightly sleep period, defined as the simple difference between sleep onset and offset, based on a wrist-mounted accelerometer (wristwatch).

  5. Inattention

    Time frame: Twice daily during weeks 2 and 3 of study participation.

    Adolescent-reported attention will me assessed via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)

  6. Inattention, as objectively measured via the NASA PVT+ application (aka Psychomotor Vigilance Test).

    Time frame: Four remote administrations: (1) the morning of a predetermined date during Week 2 of study participation; (2) the afternoon of that same Week 2 date; (3) the morning of a predetermined date during Week 3; (4) the afternoon of that same Week 3 date.

    Remote-proctored administration via the NASA PVT+, loaded onto an iPhone. This is a computerized measure of sustained attention. Participants must attend to infrequent stimuli on screen as quickly as possible. Higher scores indicate slower or missed responses, and therefore greater inattention.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Dean Beebe, Ph.D

CONTACT

[email protected]

513-636-3489

Stephen Becker, Ph.D.

CONTACT

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Registry information

Official study title

Impact of Circadian Misalignment for Adolescents With ADHD: Observational and Mechanistic Data

Acronym: AACT

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2030
Study completion
2030
First posted
Jul 6, 2026
Registry last updated
Jul 6, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.