TL;DR: 1) click here for a study on how sleep affects challenging behavior in children with ASD; 2) click here for recommendations for sleep-related issues w/children with ASD
Did you know that 50-80% of children with ASD experience sleep-related difficulties? That’s one out of every two children, at best! Below, I briefly describe our newly published paper that measured how sleep affects challenging behavior in children with ASD who receive intensive behavioral intervention. I also discuss some general recommendations for sleep-related difficulties with children with ASD.
How Sleep Affects Challenging Behavior
You may be surprised to learn that very few studies (perhaps only a handful) have directly measured the effects of sleep on challenging behavior in children with ASD. Instead, most studies have relied on parent and instructor reports to understand the relationship between sleep and challenging behavior. Furthermore, we don’t know very much about how sleep may affect children with ASD who receive intensive behavioral intervention.
To address the above limitations, we observed sleep and challenging behavior in 39 children with ASD. We we used behavioral observation techniques (in this case, partial interval recording) and actigraphy data and found that poor sleep was associated with higher rates of repetitive behavior, a core feature of ASD. We also found that poor sleep also increased negative affect and challenging behaviors, overall.
This study was recently published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and it can be accessed by clicking here. I’d like to thank my co-authors for bringing me along on this fantastic collaboration. I’d also like to thank the Gadomski Foundation, the Purdue University Center for Families, and the Purdue University Graduate Student Government for their financial support that contributed to this research.
General Recommendations
If you believe a child has a sleep problem, the first step is to rule out sleep disorders that require medical attention. Once you rule out any medical or biological variables that may be affecting sleep, there are a number of empirically-supported approaches to managing sleep-related difficulties.
A few years ago, my students and I published a paper in Behavior Analysis in Practice titled “Recommendations for Identifying Sleep Problems and Treatment Resources for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” You can view this paper by clicking here. We discuss general recommendations for assessing sleep problems, such as: 1) sleep questionnaires, 2) sleep diaries, and 3) actigraphy.
A little bit of information can go a long way! Do you know how well your student / child sleeps? If so, how do their sleep habits align with recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation? The below table is just one of the many resources you can find in our paper. Use the table to compare your child’s sleep to what is considered healthy sleep duration, depending on his or her age.
In this paper, we also discuss general behavioral treatments for sleep-related problems, such as: 1) sleep hygiene and 2) parent training. We also discuss general recommendations for sleep onset insomnia, which is possibly the most common sleep difficulty children face.
Summary
I hope you find the above information helpful. As always, if you’re not sure about where to start or run into any challenges, please consult with a trusted professional with expertise in this area. Also, the articles cited in our paper on general recommendations will likely provide you with a wealth of additional information that may be relevant to your student or child.