Understanding the role of sleep and its disturbances in Autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Background

Several studies have established a positive relationship between sleep difficulties and symptomatology in ASD children. The rationale for this review is to describe and discuss the sleep difficulties, which are one of the significant complications associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Purpose

Many types of sleep disorders have been reported in ASD individuals, but still lack a comprehensive study and in-depth analysis. Despite the contribution of sleep problems to the overall symptoms of ASD, the symptoms of disturbed sleep experienced by many affected patients have only recently started to receive attention from clinicians and family members.

Materials and methods

This narrative overview has been prepared based on searching standard research databases with specific keywords; b. Additional search was made using the bibliographies of the retrieved articles; and c. author's collection of relevant peer-reviewed articles. Once selected, manuscripts are then compared and summarized based on the author's perspective. Results are based on a qualitative rather than a quantitative level.

Results

This article highlights the role of sleep in the brain and neural development of children and emphasizes that the intensity of sleep problems is associated with an increased occurrence of ASD symptoms. It also suggests the significance of treating sleep problems in ASD individuals.

Conclusions

The review provides broader perspectives and a better understanding of sleep problems in pathophysiology, mechanism, and management with respect to ASD individuals. Finally, the implications for clinical practice and future agendas have also been discussed.

Keywords:

• ASD
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Sleep
• Sleep problems
• treatment of ASD
• melatonin

Compliance with ethical standards

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Disclosure statement

All authors report no conflict of interest. All authors have read the journal's policy and would like to report the following statement: SRP is a stockholder and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Somnogen Canada Inc., a Canadian Corporation. He declared no competing interests that might be perceived to influence the content of this article. All remaining authors declare that they have no proprietary, financial, professional, or any other personal interest of any kind in any product or services and/or company that could be construed or considered to be a potential conflict of interest that might haveinfluenced the views expressed in this manuscript.

Author contributions

Conceived and designed the manuscript: RK, GMB, SRP; Wrote the paper: RK, VS; Critically reviewed the manuscript: RK, DPC, GMB, DWS, SRP. All authors met the ICMJE criteria for authorship. All authors approved the final version of the submitted manuscript.