Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Souders, Margaret C.; Zavodny, Stefanie; Eriksen, Whitney; Sinko, Rebecca; Connell, James E.; Kerns, Connor M.; Schaaf, Roseann C.; Pinto‐Martin, Jennifer

doi:10.1007/s11920-017-0782-x

Cited by 208 publications

(163 citation statements)

References 125 publications

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“…Sleep disturbances appear in 40-80% of children with ASD [2][3][4][5] , as compared with 20-40% of typically developing children 6,7 . Symptoms include prolonged sleep latency, shorter sleep duration, and increased wake periods during the night, as reported by both subjective parental questionnaires and actigraphy measures [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . Poor sleep in children with ASD is associated with increased sensory sensitivities [15][16][17][18] and increased aberrant behaviors [18][19][20][21] , which impair the quality of life of affected families 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced sleep pressure in young children with autism

Arazi

Meiri

Danan

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Study Objectives: Sleep disturbances and insomnia are highly prevalent in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Sleep homeostasis, a fundamental mechanism of sleep regulation that generates pressure to sleep as a function of wakefulness, has not been studied in children with ASD so far, and its potential contribution to their sleep disturbances remains unknown. Here, we examined whether slow wave activity (SWA), a measure that is indicative of sleep pressure, differs in children with ASD. Methods:In this case-control study, we compared overnight electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings that were performed during Polysomnography (PSG) evaluations of 29 children with ASD and 23 typically developing children.Results: Children with ASD exhibited significantly weaker SWA power, shallower SWA slopes, and a decreased proportion of slow wave sleep in comparison to controls. This difference was largest during the first two hours following sleep onset and decreased gradually thereafter. Furthermore, SWA power of children with ASD was significantly, negatively correlated with the time of their sleep onset in the lab and at home, as reported by parents. Conclusions:These results suggest that children with ASD may have a dysregulation of sleep homeostasis that is manifested in reduced sleep pressure. The extent of this dysregulation in individual children was apparent in the amplitude of their SWA power, which was indicative of the severity of their individual sleep disturbances. We, therefore, suggest that disrupted homeostatic sleep regulation may contribute to sleep disturbances in children with ASD. Statement of significance:Sleep disturbances are apparent in 40-80% of children with autism. Homeostatic sleep regulation, a mechanism that increases the pressure to sleep as a function of prior wakefulness, has not been studied in children with autism. Here, we compared Polysomnography exams of 29 children with autism and 23 matched controls. We found that children with autism exhibited reduced slow-wave-activity power and shallower slopes, particularly during the first two hours of sleep. This suggests that they develop less pressure to sleep. Furthermore, the reduction in slow-wave-activity was associated with the severity of sleep disturbances as observed in the laboratory and as reported by parents. We, therefore, suggest that disrupted homeostatic sleep regulation may contribute to sleep disturbances of children with autism.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced sleep pressure in young children with autism

Arazi

Meiri

Danan

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Sleep is governed by a host of neurophysiological networks, some of which play a key role in the physiopathology of ASD (Brown, Basheer, McKenna, Strecker, & McCarley, 2012;Shi, Wu, Ptáček, & Fu, 2017). As a matter of fact, sleep problems have been steadily reported to be found in 60%-85% of children with ASD according to parental reports, compared with 10%-30% in TD children (Richdale, 1999;Souders et al, 2017) and this has been confirmed in a meta-analysis of objective sleep measures (polysomnography and/or actigraphy), while intellectual disability and medication use was found to influence the findings (Elrod & Hood, 2015). The most prevalent sleep problems in children with autism are long latencies to sleep onset, numerous/long nocturnal awakenings, and short durations of sleep.…”

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confidence: 99%

NREM sleep EEG slow waves in autistic and typically developing children: Morphological characteristics and scalp distribution

Lehoux

Carrier

2018

Journal of Sleep Research

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Summary Autism is a developmental disorder with a neurobiological aetiology. Studies of the autistic brain identified atypical developmental trajectories that may lead to an impaired capacity to modulate electroencephalogram activity during sleep. We assessed the topography and characteristics of non‐rapid eye movement sleep electroencephalogram slow waves in 26 boys aged between 6 and 13 years old: 13 with an autism spectrum disorder and 13 typically developing. None of the participants was medicated, intellectually disabled, reported poor sleep, or suffered from medical co‐morbidities. Results are derived from a second consecutive night of polysomnography in a sleep laboratory. Slow waves (0.3–4.0 Hz; >75 µV) were automatically detected on artefact‐free sections of non‐rapid eye movement sleep along the anteroposterior axis in frontal, central, parietal and occipital derivations. Slow wave density (number per minute), amplitude (µV), slope (µV s−1) and duration (s) were computed for the first four non‐rapid eye movement periods. Slow wave characteristics comparisons between groups, derivations and non‐rapid eye movement periods were assessed with three‐way mixed ANOVAs. Slow wave density, amplitude, slope and duration were higher in anterior compared with most posterior derivations in both groups. Children with autism spectrum disorder showed lower differences in slow waves between recording sites along the anteroposterior axis than typically developing children. These group differences in the topography of slow wave characteristics were stable across the night. We propose that slow waves during non‐rapid eye movement sleep could be an electrophysiological marker of the deviant cortical maturation in autism linked to an atypical functioning of thalamo‐cortical networks.

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“…Today, one in 59 children is diagnosed with ASD at age 8 (Baio et al, 2018) and it is estimated that up to 86% of this population suffers from at least one reported sleep problem (Maxwell-Horn & Malow, 2017;Souders et al, 2017). Individuals with ASD often sleep less and have problems falling and staying asleep.…”

Section: In Somnia In Autis M S Pec Trum Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data originally reported by Frank and Heller (1997) [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] night awakenings that reduces sleep efficiency (the amount of time actually spent asleep in a night) and interferes with daytime functioning (Owens & Mindell, 2011). Insomnia prevalence in ASD ranges between 40% and 86% (Johnson, Giannotti, & Cortesi, 2009;Maxwell-Horn & Malow, 2017;Richdale & Schreck, 2009;Souders et al, 2017) which is two to three times more prevalent than in typical development (Owens & Mindell, 2011). The majority of data regarding prevalence of insomnia in ASD has been collected using sleep questionnaires.…”

Section: In Somnia In Autis M S Pec Trum Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…animal models, ASD, autism, development, EEG, homeostasis, insomnia, neurodevelopment, rodents, sleep & Malow, 2017;Souders et al, 2017). Sleep problems are predictive of severity of ASD core symptoms, social deficits and repetitive behaviors, and associated behavioral issues such as tantrums and aggression (Cohen, Conduit, Lockley, Rajaratnam, & Cornish, 2014;Mazurek, Dovgan, Neumeyer, & Malow, 2019;Tudor, Hoffman, & Sweeney, 2012;Veatch et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sleep, brain development, and autism spectrum disorders: Insights from animal models

Wintler

Schoch

Frank

et al. 2020

J of Neuroscience Research

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Sleep is an evolutionarily conserved and powerful drive, although its complete functions are still unknown. One possible function of sleep is that it promotes brain development. The amount of sleep is greatest during ages when the brain is rapidly developing, and sleep has been shown to influence critical period plasticity. This supports a role for sleep in brain development and suggests that abnormal sleep in early life may lead to abnormal development. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder in the United States. It is estimated that insomnia affects 44%–86% of the ASD population, predicting the severity of ASD core symptoms and associated behavioral problems. Sleep problems impact the quality of life of both ASD individuals and their caregivers, thus it is important to understand why they are so prevalent. In this review, we explore the role of sleep in early life as a causal factor in ASD. First, we review fundamental steps in mammalian sleep ontogeny and regulation and how sleep influences brain development. Next, we summarize current knowledge gained from studying sleep in animal models of ASD. Ultimately, our goal is to highlight the importance of understanding the role of sleep in brain development and the use of animal models to provide mechanistic insight into the origin of sleep problems in ASD.

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Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 208 publications

References 125 publications

Reduced sleep pressure in young children with autism

Reduced sleep pressure in young children with autism

NREM sleep EEG slow waves in autistic and typically developing children: Morphological characteristics and scalp distribution

Sleep, brain development, and autism spectrum disorders: Insights from animal models

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