Defining the Sleep Phenotype in Children With Autism

Abstract

Sleep concerns are common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We identified objective sleep measures that differentiated ASD children with and without parental sleep concerns, and related parental concerns and objective measures to aspects of daytime behavior. ASD poor sleepers differed from ASD good sleepers on actigraphic (sleep latency, sleep efficiency, fragmentation) and polysomnographic (sleep latency) measures, and were reported to have more inattention, hyperactivity, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. Fragmentation was correlated with more restricted/repetitive behaviors. This work provides the foundation for focused studies of pathophysiology and targeted interventions to improve sleep in this population.

Notes

This research was supported by a Vanderbilt University Interdisciplinary Discovery Grant, Vanderbilt CTSA Grant 1 UL1 RR024975 from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research in Human Development, and the National Alliance for Autism Research.

¹Kruskal Wallis Test Statistic.

^aSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_GS and ASD_PS groups with Mann-Whitney U.

^bSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_PS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U.

¹Kruskal Wallis Test statistic.

²Average of two nights sleep.

^aSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_GS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U test.

^bSignificant at < 0.05 between AS_GS and ASD_PS groups with Mann-Whitney U test.

^cSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_PS and TD with Mann-Whitney U test.

¹Kruskal Wallis Test Statistic.

^aSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD-GS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U test.

^bSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD-PS and TD with Mann-Whitney U test.

^cSignificant at < 0.05 between AS-GS and ASD-PS groups with Mann-Whitney U test.

¹Kruskal Wallis Test Statistic.

^aAll subscales were significant at p < .05 between ASD-GS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U test statistic.

^bAll subscales were significant at p < .05 between ASD-GS and ASD-PS groups with Mann-Whitney U test statistic.

^cAll subscales were significant at p < .05 between ASD-PS and TD with Mann-Whitney U test statistic.

¹Kruskal Wallis Test statistic.

^aSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_GS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U statistic.

^bSignificant at < 0.05 between ASD_PS and TD groups with Mann-Whitney U statistic.