Department of Human Services, Curry School of Education & Human Development, University of Virginia, 417 Emmet Street South, PO Box 400267, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
Department of Psychology, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 May;49(5):2101-2115. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-03894-5.
The chronicity of sleep disturbance and its relation to co-occurring symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not well understood. The current study examined longitudinal relations among sleep and co-occurring symptoms in a large well-characterized sample of 437 children with ASD assessed at baseline and follow-up (M = 3.8 years later). Twenty-three percent experienced worsening sleep problems over time, while 31.5% showed improvement. Path analysis indicated that sleep problems at baseline predicted later development of ADHD symptoms in younger children and somatic complaints in older children. For younger children, sensory over-responsivity predicted future sleep problems. Findings suggest that sensory over-reactivity may contribute to sleep problems in some children with ASD, and that sleep problems may result in poor daytime functioning.
睡眠障碍的慢性及其与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）共病症状的关系尚不清楚。本研究在一个由 437 名 ASD 儿童组成的大型、特征良好的样本中，对睡眠和共病症状之间的纵向关系进行了评估，这些儿童在基线和随访时（M=3.8 年后）接受了评估。23%的儿童随着时间的推移出现睡眠问题恶化，而 31.5%的儿童则出现改善。路径分析表明，基线时的睡眠问题预测了年龄较小的儿童日后出现 ADHD 症状，年龄较大的儿童出现躯体症状。对于年龄较小的儿童，感觉过度反应预测未来的睡眠问题。研究结果表明，感觉过度反应可能会导致一些 ASD 儿童出现睡眠问题，而睡眠问题可能会导致白天功能不佳。
