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Updated: Jun 7, 2026
Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism
Published on: March 27, 2012
Rapid eye movement sleep percentage in children with autism compared with children with developmental delay and
Ashura Williams Buckley1, Alcibiades J Rodriguez, Kaitlin Jennison
1National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ashura.buckley@gmail.com
Insights
Children with autism exhibit altered sleep patterns, including reduced total sleep time and significantly less REM sleep compared to typically developing children. These sleep differences may reflect underlying neural organization abnormalities in autism.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Sleep Medicine
Background:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition.
- Sleep disturbances are frequently reported in children with ASD.
- Objective sleep parameters in autism are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare objective polysomnographic (PSG) sleep parameters.
- To evaluate sleep architecture in children with autism.
- To compare with children with typical development and developmental delay without autism.
Main Methods:
- Overnight PSG recordings were analyzed by a sleep specialist.
- Sleep architecture was scored using American Academy of Sleep Medicine criteria.
- Participants included children with autism, typical development, and developmental delay (ages 2-13).
Main Results:
- Children with autism had shorter total sleep time than typical children.
- Autism group showed greater slow-wave sleep and less REM sleep percentage.
- No significant sleep differences were found between typical and developmental delay groups.
Conclusions:
- Reduced REM sleep in autism may indicate atypical neural organization.
- Sleep abnormalities in autism are not solely due to intellectual disability.
- Sleep patterns offer insights into neurotransmitter dysfunction in autism.
Objective:
To compare objective polysomnographic parameters between 3 cohorts: children with autism, typical development, and developmental delay without autism.
Design:
Overnight polysomnographic recordings were scored for sleep architecture according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine criteria by a board-certified sleep medicine specialist blind to diagnosis for studies collected between July 2006 and September 2009.
Setting:
Subjects were evaluated in the pediatric ward in the Clinical Research Center of the National Institutes of Health.
Participants:
First 60 consecutive children with autism, 15 with typical development, and 13 with developmental delay matched for nonverbal IQ to the autism group, ranging in age from 2 to 13 years, selected without regard to the presence or absence of sleep problem behavior.
Main Outcome Measures:
Total sleep time, latencies to non-rapid eye movement (REM) and REM sleep, and percentages of total sleep time for stages 1 and 2 sleep, slow-wave sleep, and REM sleep.
Results:
There were no differences between the typical vs developmental delay groups. Comparison of children with autism vs typical children revealed shorter total sleep time (P = .004), greater slow-wave sleep percentage (P = .001), and much smaller REM sleep percentage (14.5% vs 22.6%; P < .001). Comparison of children with autism vs children with developmental delay revealed shorter total sleep time (P = .001), greater stage 1 sleep percentage (P < .001), greater slow-wave sleep percentage (P < .001), and much less REM sleep percentage (14.5% v 25%; P < .001).
Conclusion:
A relative deficiency of REM sleep may indicate an abnormality in neural organization in young children with autism that is not directly associated with or related to inherent intellectual disability but may serve as a window into understanding core neurotransmitter abnormalities unique to this disorder.
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