Children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or another developmental delay or disorder that includes autistic characteristics are twice as likely to have sleeping problems, a multisite case-control study has found.
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The findings match up with previous similar studies, but this study is among the largest to measure sleeping problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with two control groups.
“ including physiologic differences, sleep disorders, developmental comorbidities, medical comorbidities causing sleep disruption, communication impairments, and behavioral disturbances,” Ann M. Reynolds, MD, of the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado, both in Aurora, and her associates reported in Pediatrics.
Dr. Ann Reynolds
“Children with ASD are more likely to have anxiety, which may predispose them to sleep problems,” the authors added.
The study evaluated sleep habits and problems in 1,987 children aged 2-5 years. The study population included 522 children with ASD, 228 children with other developmental delays and disorders that have ASD characteristics, 534 children with other developmental delays and disorders, and 703 children from the general population.
Parents completed the Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), a 33-item assessment tool typically used with a total score cutoff of 41 and above for identification of children with sleep disorders. The researchers also used a second, more conservative cutoff of 48 – the cutoff for the highest quartile in the general population group – to avoid overidentification with the lower cutoff.