Sleep is essential for optimal health in children and adolescents. Members of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine developed consensus recommendations for the amount of sleep needed to promote optimal health in children and adolescents using a modified RAND Appropriateness Method. The recommendations are summarized here. A manuscript detailing the conference proceedings and the evidence supporting these recommendations will be published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. CO NSENSUS RECO M M ENDATI O NS• Infants* 4 months to 12 months should sleep 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 1 to 2 years of age should sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 3 to 5 years of age should sleep 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 6 to 12 years of age should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Teenagers 13 to 18 years of age should sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health.• Sleeping the number of recommended hours on a regular basis is associated with better health outcomes including: improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health.• Regularly sleeping fewer than the number of recommended hours is associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems. teenagers is associated with increased risk of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.• Regularly sleeping more than the recommended hours may be associated with adverse health outcomes such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and mental health problems.• Parents who are concerned that their child is sleeping too little or too much should consult their healthcare provider for evaluation of a possible sleep disorder.* Recommendations for infants younger than 4 months are not included due to the wide range of normal variation in duration and patterns of sleep, and insufficient evidence for associations with health outcomes. BACKG ROUND A ND M ETHO DO LOGYHealthy sleep requires adequate duration, appropriate timing, good quality, regularity, and the absence of sleep disturbances or disorders. Sleep duration is a frequently investigated sleep measure in relation to health. A panel of 13 experts in sleep medicine and research used a modified RAND Appropriateness Method 1 to develop recommendations regarding the sleep duration range that promotes optimal health in children aged 0-18 years. The expert panel reviewed published scientific evidence addressing the relationship between sleep duration and

We are performing whole genome sequencing (WGS) of families with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to build a resource, named MSSNG, to enable the sub-categorization of phenotypes and underlying genetic factors involved. Here, we report WGS of 5,205 samples from families with ASD, accompanied by clinical information, creating a database accessible in a cloud platform, and through an internet portal with controlled access. We found an average of 73.8 de novo single nucleotide variants and 12.6 de novo insertion/deletions (indels) or copy number variations (CNVs) per ASD subject. We identified 18 new candidate ASD-risk genes such as MED13 and PHF3, and found that participants bearing mutations in susceptibility genes had significantly lower adaptive ability (p=6×10−4). In 294/2,620 (11.2%) of ASD cases, a molecular basis could be determined and 7.2% of these carried CNV/chromosomal abnormalities, emphasizing the importance of detecting all forms of genetic variation as diagnostic and therapeutic targets in ASD.

A commentary on this article apears in this issue on page 1439.

Parentally reported sleep concerns of insomnia in children with ASD are substantiated by validated sleep questionnaires and by PSG. Furthermore, good sleepers with ASD showed fewer affective problems and better social interactions than ASD poor sleepers.