TPP 210a: Dr. Roberto Olivardia Talks About Kids with ADHD and Sleep Challenges
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
46 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 16 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What are the main sleep challenges faced by kids with ADHD?
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Hey, it's Debbie. Today I'm sharing a Playback Friday episode. Unless you're a longtime listener, you likely haven't heard this one yet. And even if you have, I bet you'll get something completely different from it this time around. So I don't know about you, but really, from the time my son was a little guy, sleep has been a major challenge. In fact, the very first type of outside help Darren and I reached out to was a sleep consultant back when Asher was, I think, one year old. So I'm excited to be bringing the topic of sleep in differently wired kids to the show for the very first time. Specifically, we'll be looking at sleep challenges in kids with ADHD. My guest is Dr. Roberto Olivarda, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, who specializes in the treatment of ADHD, OCD, and BDD, or body dysmorphic disorder, as well as the associated issues that stem from learning disorders such as anxiety, depression, and sleep dysfunction.
Dr. Olivarda is an especially compelling expert on this topic as He is not only the parent of a child with ADHD, but he himself has an ADHD diagnosis and, in conjunction, has experience with multiple sleep issues, both personally and as a parent. In our conversation, we discuss common sleep problems for children with ADHD, techniques and strategies that are often helpful, the impact of ADHD medication on sleep and the use of melatonin in children, and much more. And I just want to say that while we focus on ADHD in particular, so many of the sleep challenges we discuss will likely be familiar to all parents. So I hope this conversation leads to healthier sleep habits for you and your families. Hello Roberto, welcome to the podcast.
Great being here. Thank you for having me, Debbie.
I'm so excited and you have so much expertise that is of interest, I think, to my community. So we'll have to bring you back on to talk about many different subjects. But for today, we are gonna be talking about sleep. Actually, I've released more than 200 episodes of the show and I have never covered sleep as its own topic. So I have a lot of questions for you and I'm really excited to jump in, but can you take a few minutes to just give us a brief introduction about who you are and and the work that you do in the world?
Sure. I am a clinical psychologist and a lecturer in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. I have a private practice where I treat people of all ages, uh children, adolescents, adults. Um, I specialize in a couple of things. One uh's ADHD, executive functioning issues. I work with A lot of students with learning disabilities like dyslexia. Um, I also specialize in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. I work with boys and men with eating disorders, which is something I co wrote a book about many years ago. And also from a personal experience, I have ADHD. I have a son with ADHD and dyslexia. So from a I come from this particular topic, you know, from both a p a personal place as well and do a lot of advocacy work around uh dyslexia and and learning disabilities and just
love to do these kind of podcasts and webinars and presentations to educate people, um, because it's as I'm sure you know that ADHD in Learning differences in that whole world is still so misunderstood out there.
Yeah. Absolutely. And so Let's just talk about sleep problems kind of in general, because you know, I I've got a fifteen year old and we've had sleep problems since he was a baby. Like it's just been a part of our of our life. And so I'd love to even just to start with, is this common for kids with ADHD? And and maybe talk about why um kids with ADHD might be more prone to having sleep problems.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the main sleep challenges faced by kids with ADHD?
0:00–5:29
2
How does ADHD affect a child’s ability to fall asleep and stay asleep?
5:29–11:20
3
What personal sleep‑related experiences does Dr. Olivardia share as a parent with ADHD?
11:20–17:11
4
How can melatonin be used safely for children with ADHD?
17:11–23:05
5
What impact do ADHD medications have on bedtime and sleep quality?
23:05–28:06
6
Which bedtime routines and environmental tweaks help ADHD kids sleep better?
28:06–34:00
7
How do sleep issues change for adolescents with ADHD and what can parents do?
34:00–40:55
8
What first steps and resources should parents use to improve their child’s sleep?
40:55–46:56
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
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TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids