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Assessment of Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Makeda Moore1, Victoria Evans2, Grace Hanvey3

  • 1Department of Clinical & Health Psychology, University of Florida, 1225 Center Dr., Room 3130, P.O. Box 100165, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. mmoore0815@ufl.edu.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|August 9, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience more sleep disturbances. This review highlights subjective and objective measures for assessing sleep issues in ASD, emphasizing their complementary roles.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background:

  • Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) children.
  • Poor sleep negatively impacts cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning in children with ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe the screening and assessment process for sleep disturbances in children with ASD.
  • To discuss specific subjective and objective measures for assessing sleep in this population.
  • To highlight the advantages and limitations of various assessment tools for children with ASD.

Main Methods:

  • Review of subjective measures: parent-report questionnaires and sleep diaries.
  • Review of objective measures: actigraphy, polysomnography, and videosomnography.
  • Discussion of the complementary use of both subjective and objective measures.

Main Results:

  • Subjective measures are widely used but can be limited by recall bias.
  • Objective measures provide valuable diagnostic and treatment planning data but face challenges in cost, availability, and feasibility.
  • Both subjective and objective measures are crucial for comprehensive sleep assessment in children with ASD.

Conclusions:

  • A combined approach using both subjective and objective sleep measures is recommended for accurate assessment and effective management of sleep disturbances in children with ASD.
  • Early screening and assessment are vital due to the significant impact of sleep on overall functioning.
  • Further research may focus on improving the feasibility and accessibility of objective sleep measures for this population.

Keywords:
actigraphyassessmentautismautism spectrum disorderpolysomnographyquestionnairessleepsleep disturbancevideosomnography

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