Exploration of sleep disturbances in children and adolescents with and without autism in a paediatric sample referred for polysomnography.

Researchers looked at sleep problems in nearly 3,000 children who had sleep studies done at a children's hospital. About 200 of these children had autism. They found that children with autism had more sleep problems than other children, especially trouble with restless sleep, problems with their sleep-wake cycle, and difficulty falling or staying asleep. This shows that sleep issues are very common in autistic children and families should work with doctors to address these problems.

This study analyzed sleep data from 2,838 children (ages 3-17) referred for polysomnography at a pediatric hospital between 2017-2019, with 198 (7%) having autism diagnoses. The research examined sleep problems in children with and without autism through secondary analysis of clinical encounter data. Children with autism showed significantly higher rates of several sleep disturbances compared to neurotypical peers, particularly restless sleep, circadian rhythm disorders, and insomnia. Common sleep problems across all participants included apnea, snoring, non-specified sleep disorders, circadian rhythm disorders, and insomnia.

The findings highlight the disproportionate burden of sleep difficulties in autistic children and emphasize the need for targeted sleep evaluation and intervention approaches for this population.

Results support routine sleep screening for autistic children and development of autism-specific sleep interventions. Clinicians should particularly assess for circadian rhythm disorders and insomnia in autistic patients. The high prevalence of sleep problems suggests sleep should be a priority area for comprehensive autism care planning and family support.

Secondary data analysis limits depth of clinical detail. Study focused only on children referred for polysomnography, potentially creating selection bias toward more severe sleep problems. No control for autism severity or specific sleep intervention outcomes. Limited generalizability beyond clinical populations seeking sleep medicine services.

The purpose of the study was to increase the body of knowledge related to sleep in children with autism. The specific aims were to (i) identify the subgroup of children with autism, ages 3-17 years, referred for polysomnography and (ii) describe types and frequency of clinical encounters for sleep problems in a sample of children ages 3-17 with and without the diagnosis of autism. The authors performed a secondary data analysis of the de-identified Nationwide Children's Hospital Sleep DataBank, a collection of encounters with children referred for polysomnography. The data were filtered for ages 3-17 years at the time of the participant's first sleep study, and further filtered for the presence of an autism diagnosis.

In the sample, there were 2838 unique participants (M = 10.5 years) with a total of 172 167 encounters between 2017 and 2019. Of these, 198 (7%) were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Among all participants, the most common sleep problems were apnea, snoring, non-specified sleep disorders (including restless sleeper), circadian rhythm disorder (CRD), and insomnia. The subgroup of patients diagnosed with autism was noted to have higher frequency of several types of sleep problems, especially restless sleep, CRD and insomnia, compared to those without an autism diagnosis.

Findings elucidate the increased presence of sleep problems in paediatric patients with autism, and the need for purposeful sleep evaluation and research given the potential impact on daytime function for these individuals and their families.