Eleven stimulant intervention studies, involving 604 participants in total, were included in the review. There were 8 controlled and blinded studies with a crossover design (497 participants) and 3 studies of other designs (107 participants).
Subjective (mostly parental) report (8 studies, 549 participants).
Four studies reported increases in trouble sleeping or insomnia with medication, compared with placebo or non-medicated controls; one study found no difference. Stimulants were found to have no effect on total sleep time (2 studies), sleep onset latency or difficulties falling asleep (3 studies).
Actigraphy (2 studies, 55 participants).
One study found a shorter total sleep time with stimulant medication compared with placebo. Two studies found no difference between stimulant and placebo or non-medicated groups in sleep onset latency, sleep percentage or activity level.
Polysomnography (2 studies, 25 participants).
One study found stimulant intake to be associated with lower total sleep time and sleep efficiency. Two studies noted effects of stimulant medication on rapid eye movement sleep, but not on slow wave sleep.