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Six-month persistence of sleep problems in young children with autism, developmental delay, and typical development

Beth Goodlin-Jones1, A J Schwichtenberg1, Ana-Maria Iosif1

  • 1All of the authors are with the University of California, Davis.

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
|July 1, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Parent reports of sleep problems in preschool children with autism may overestimate issues compared to objective measures. Objective assessments showed sleep problems were not persistent in most children across groups.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Sleep disturbances are common in preschool children, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental delays.
  • Discrepancies exist between subjective parental reports and objective measures of sleep problems in children.
  • Understanding the persistence and nature of sleep issues is crucial for effective intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the persistence of sleep problems in preschool children with autism.
  • To compare sleep problem prevalence and persistence between children with autism, developmental delay (without autism), and typically developing children.
  • To examine the concordance between subjective (parent report, CSHQ) and objective (actigraphy, RDC) sleep assessments.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study design with three assessments over a 6-month period.
  • Objective sleep assessment using actigraphy and Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC).
  • Subjective sleep assessment via parent-reported sleep-wake diaries and the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ).

Main Results:

  • Parental reports of generic sleep problems were more frequent than objectively defined problems, especially in neurodevelopmental groups.
  • Objectively measured sleep problems (actigraphy, CSHQ) were rarely persistent over the 6-month study period across all groups.
  • Children with autism and developmental delay exhibited more sleep problems on one or two occasions compared to typically developing children.

Conclusions:

  • Subjective and objective sleep measures yield differing results in preschool-aged children.
  • In this community sample, objectively measured sleep problems (actigraphy, CSHQ) did not differ between children with autism and typically developing children.
  • Parental perception of generic sleep problems was significantly higher in children with autism compared to objective findings.
Abstract

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