Comparing sleep patterns between children with autism spectrum disorder and children with typical development: a matched case–control study
Comparing sleep patterns between children with autism spectrum disorder and children with typical development: a matched case–control study
Children with autism spectrum disorder are often reported to have more sleep deficits and poorer sleep quality compared with children with typical development. However, most previous studies have serious methodological limitations, such as varying sample sizes in the comparison groups, wide age range of participants, and body mass index not matched between participants. This study investigated whether sleep patterns differed between children with autism spectrum disorder and those with typical development using a carefully matched case–control design and incorporating both actigraphy and sleep log assessments. A total of 78 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were matched with 78 typical development controls in this study. The matched variables included age, gender, and body mass index. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had shorter sleep duration, reduced sleep efficiency, longer sleep-onset latency, and longer wake after sleep onset than children with typical development (ps < 0.05). Further studies are needed to explore the mechanisms underlying these sleep deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract: This study compared the sleep pattern between children with autism spectrum disorders and children with typical development using a matched case–control design (matched age, gender, and body mass index). Significant differences were found in night-time sleep duration (total amount of sleep at night), sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent asleep), sleep-onset latency (length of time that it takes to transit from awake to asleep), and wake after sleep onset (total amount of time spent awake after defined sleep onset). Findings showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had poorer sleep quality than children with typical development. Mechanisms underlying the differences should be further explored in order to develop an effective treatment intervention.
autism spectrum disorder, children, sleep, typical development
2298-2303
Tse, Andy C.Y.
e0d6b2be-a736-43ac-b03e-d2d58a56e114
Yu, C. C.W.
0ffaac60-4999-4bbf-ac6d-d3d4cecad0b3
Lee, Paul H.
02620eab-ae7f-4a1c-bad1-8a50e7e48951
1 November 2020
Tse, Andy C.Y.
e0d6b2be-a736-43ac-b03e-d2d58a56e114
Yu, C. C.W.
0ffaac60-4999-4bbf-ac6d-d3d4cecad0b3
Lee, Paul H.
02620eab-ae7f-4a1c-bad1-8a50e7e48951
Tse, Andy C.Y., Yu, C. C.W. and Lee, Paul H.
(2020)
Comparing sleep patterns between children with autism spectrum disorder and children with typical development: a matched case–control study.
Autism, 24 (8), .
(doi:10.1177/1362361320936827).
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder are often reported to have more sleep deficits and poorer sleep quality compared with children with typical development. However, most previous studies have serious methodological limitations, such as varying sample sizes in the comparison groups, wide age range of participants, and body mass index not matched between participants. This study investigated whether sleep patterns differed between children with autism spectrum disorder and those with typical development using a carefully matched case–control design and incorporating both actigraphy and sleep log assessments. A total of 78 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were matched with 78 typical development controls in this study. The matched variables included age, gender, and body mass index. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had shorter sleep duration, reduced sleep efficiency, longer sleep-onset latency, and longer wake after sleep onset than children with typical development (ps < 0.05). Further studies are needed to explore the mechanisms underlying these sleep deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract: This study compared the sleep pattern between children with autism spectrum disorders and children with typical development using a matched case–control design (matched age, gender, and body mass index). Significant differences were found in night-time sleep duration (total amount of sleep at night), sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent asleep), sleep-onset latency (length of time that it takes to transit from awake to asleep), and wake after sleep onset (total amount of time spent awake after defined sleep onset). Findings showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had poorer sleep quality than children with typical development. Mechanisms underlying the differences should be further explored in order to develop an effective treatment intervention.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 7 July 2020
Published date: 1 November 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was financially supported by EdUHK departmental seed funding (Ref no.: R4002).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Keywords:
autism spectrum disorder, children, sleep, typical development
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Local EPrints ID: 475046
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/475046
ISSN: 1362-3613
PURE UUID: 5a539db9-7f4f-4893-9e0e-0a75df24480d
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Date deposited: 09 Mar 2023 18:47
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:08
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Author:
Andy C.Y. Tse
Author:
C. C.W. Yu
Author:
Paul H. Lee
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