New Study Says ADHD Isn’t Just About Attention: It’s Also About Timing & Rhythm,

What makes this study particularly interesting is that it pushes back against the idea that sleep problems in ADHD are merely secondary.

Image by Richard Duijnstee from Pixabay

A new study reported by PsyPost looks at something most Hunters with ADHD already know in their bones but that medicine has been slow to take seriously: sleep isn’t just a side issue, but is woven into the condition itself.

The researchers found that genetic variants associated with reduced melatonin production were linked in children to greater ADHD symptom severity, especially inattentiveness. Importantly, this relationship held even when obvious sleep problems like delayed sleep onset were accounted for.

In other words, this is not simply a matter of people with ADHD staying up too late and then being tired the next day; the biology appears deeper than that.

Melatonin is often treated as a bedtime supplement, a little pill we take 5 milligrams of to nudge ourselves into sleep. But biologically it’s much more than that.

This hormone is an essential part of the body’s core timing system, shaping circadian rhythms, regulating alertness and rest, and interacting with stress and immune pathways. When melatonin production is altered, the entire rhythm of the organism can shift. That matters a great deal when we’re talking about attention, focus, and responsiveness to the environment.

Seen through the lens of my Hunter in a Farmer’s world hypothesis, this study fits remarkably well. ADHD traits have long been framed as deficits because they clash with the demands of modern industrial society. Sit still. Focus narrowly for hours. Wake up at the same time every day regardless of season, light, or context.

These are Farmer traits. They are perfect for plowed fields, factory floors, classrooms, and offices. But they’re not the only way a nervous system can be organized.

In a Hunter or forager context, flexibility mattered more than rigidity. Being alert at odd hours could mean survival. Sensitivity to changes in light, sound, and movement was an advantage. The ability to hyperfocus when something meaningful appeared, followed by periods of rest or wandering attention, fit a world that was dynamic and unpredictable. A nervous system that didn’t lock itself into a single rhythm may have been exactly what was needed.

And lower or differently timed melatonin production could support that kind of life.

Rather than enforcing a strict sleep-wake cycle, it might allow for adaptive variability including night watchfulness, early morning vigilance, bursts of energy at nonstandard times, and a readiness to respond to sudden opportunity or threat all become more plausible in that context. None of that looks like pathology until you drop that nervous system into a world built around bells, clocks, deadlines, and indoor lighting.

What makes this study particularly interesting is that it pushes back against the idea that sleep problems in ADHD are merely secondary. For years the assumption has been that ADHD causes poor sleep because the mind will not shut off.

There is truth in that, but the genetic data suggest a shared root. The same biological systems that shape circadian timing may also influence attention regulation, impulse control, and cognitive endurance. That reframes ADHD not as a broken attention system but as a differently timed one.

The study also points toward inflammatory pathways, including interleukin 6, that intersect with melatonin biology. This matters because inflammation, stress response, and vigilance are tightly linked.

In ancestral environments, a nervous system tuned for alertness and rapid response would often be paired with a robust inflammatory and immune response. In the modern world, where chronic stress replaces acute danger, that same wiring can turn against us.

None of this means that melatonin supplements cure ADHD. Clinical trials have shown that while melatonin can help shift sleep timing and improve sleep quality, it does not reliably reduce core ADHD symptoms on its own.

That fact, though, actually strengthens the Hunter in a Farmer’s world model rather than weakening it. If ADHD were simply a sleep disorder, a hormone fix would solve it. Instead, what we see is a complex interaction between circadian biology, environment, expectations, and meaning.

The real problem, in my opinion, isn’t the nervous system at all; it’s the mismatch. We’ve built a civilization that demands uniform rhythms from bodies and minds that evolved to express diversity. We then label the people who don’t fit the dominant rhythm as “disordered.”

The melatonin findings suggest that some of that diversity is written into our genes, not learned behavior or moral failure.

This also helps explain why so many people with ADHD report doing their best thinking late at night, or feeling most alive when the world is quiet and distractions fall away. That is not laziness or defiance: it may, in fact, simply be our biology expressing itself honestly. It may be the Hunter waking up to the sound of prey nearby when the village sleeps.

The danger isn’t that these traits exist, but that our society keeps forcing them into a mold that denies their value. When we pathologize circadian differences, we miss the possibility that society itself is too rigid. We ask why the Hunter cannot become a Farmer, but we rarely ask whether the world still needs Hunters.

This study doesn’t prove my Hunter in a Farmer’s world hypothesis, but it does add another solid piece to the picture. ADHD isn’t just about attention: it’s also about timing, rhythm, and how a nervous system engages with the flow of the world. When we understand that, the conversation shifts.

Instead of asking how to fix people, we can begin asking how to build a world that makes room for all of us.