Stress in autism (STREAM): A study protocol on the role of circadian activity, sleep quality and sensory reactivity

Abstract

This proof-of-concept study protocol describes a novel approach towards investigating interrelationships between stress indices, sleep and circadian activation patterns, and sensory sensitivities in autism. We will adopt an individualised approach, collecting 17 days of data per person from 20 participants with and 20 without autism. Participants' sleep will be tracked by using wearable EEG headbands and a sleep diary. Diurnal monitoring of heart rate and electrodermal activity via wearables will serve as proxies of stress and will be time-locked to subjective experience traces collected throughout the day. These traces quantify the experience dimensions such as stress and sensory sensitivities (e.g., sensory overload). Capturing the dynamics of subjective experience phase-locked to neural and physiological proxies between and within individuals can potentially tackle some of the most pressing issues in autism: sleep problems, sensory overload and stress, and will ultimately lead to an individualised prognostic approach to mental health in autism.

Breathwork-Induced Psychedelic Experiences Modulate Neural Dynamics

“…TET has previously been used to study the phenomenological dynamics of different styles of meditation (Jachs et al, 2022;Jachs, 2022), is currently being used to study temporal dynamics of stress in autism (Gernert et al, 2023), has been applied to the study of chronic pain (Niedernhuber et al, 2023) and is being applied to two separate studies with the potent and fast-acting psychedelic DMT (publications ongoing). With the methodology of TET, dimensions of subjective experience most relevant to the phenomenon of study are identified.…”