Familial sleep and autism spectrum disorder: a pilot actigraphy study of sleep quality, quality of life and psychological distress.

Geraldine Leader,Arlene Mannion,June L Chen,Bernadette Kirkpatrick,Carmel Glynn,Páraic S O’Súilleabháin

doi:10.1017/ipm.2021.24

Abstract

Sleep problems are common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can have a negative impact on the child's behaviour and daytime functioning. The current pilot study examined objective measurements of child and parent sleep as factors associated with the stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, social support and quality of life of parents of children with ASD. Participants were nine children with ASD and their parents (nine mothers and three fathers). Participants wore an actigraph for 7 consecutive days and nights. Measures of sleep habits and quality were used to ascertain child and parent sleep. Measures of parenting stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life and social support were collated. Results indicated the emergence of high parental stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Significant correlations were observed between parent depressive symptoms, and both subjective sleep quality and child sleep disruptions. The present study found that parental well-being is affected by child sleep problems.

Highlights

Sleep problems are common in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Richdale & Schreck, 2009; Mannion & Leader, 2013; Wiggs & Stores, 2004)
Significant correlations were observed between parent depressive symptoms, and both subjective sleep quality and child sleep disruptions
The present study found that parental well-being is affected by child sleep problems

Summary

Introduction

Sleep problems are common in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Richdale & Schreck, 2009; Mannion & Leader, 2013; Wiggs & Stores, 2004). Several studies have reported settling problems with some children with ASD taking more than an hour to fall asleep (Angriman et al 2015; Cortesi et al 2010; Kotagal & Broomall, 2012). The reported prevalence of sleep problems in ASD has varied in the research from 33% (Goldman et al 2011) to 80% (Mannion et al 2013). Sleep problems have been found to persist over time in children and adolescents with ASD (Mannion & Leader, 2016). Impact of sleep problems on the child Prevalence of sleep problems in children with ASD is much higher than in typically developing children (Souders et al 2009), with research finding sleep problems were more than twice as common in children with ASD as in the general population (Reynolds et al 2019).

Objectives

Results

Conclusion