Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA.
JFK University Medical Center, USA.
Autism. 2022 May;26(4):814-826. doi: 10.1177/13623613211053671. Epub 2022 Jan 6.
Higher levels of physical activity may be associated with improved sleep in children, but this relationship is still being determined, especially in autistic children. In this study, we used existing data from the 2018 National Survey of Children's Health. Caregivers of children 6-17 years old, including caregivers of autistic children, completed a questionnaire that included questions about physical activity (days active in the past week) and sleep duration. We then determined if children were obtaining the recommended hours of sleep for their age (i.e. sufficient sleep). We found that higher physical activity levels were associated with sufficient sleep duration, but this finding was weaker in autistic children. In particular, this association was not observed in autistic children with more severe autism spectrum disorder, female autistic children, and autistic children 6-12 years old. In conclusion, physical activity is a promising approach to help children obtain sufficient sleep duration. However, more personalized approaches to improving sleep may be needed for certain groups of autistic children.
较高水平的身体活动可能与儿童睡眠质量改善有关，但这种关系仍在确定之中，尤其是在自闭症儿童中。在这项研究中，我们使用了 2018 年全国儿童健康调查的现有数据。6-17 岁儿童的照顾者，包括自闭症儿童的照顾者，完成了一份问卷，其中包括关于身体活动（过去一周活跃的天数）和睡眠时间的问题。然后，我们确定儿童是否达到了他们年龄的推荐睡眠时间（即充足的睡眠）。我们发现，较高的身体活动水平与充足的睡眠时间有关，但在自闭症儿童中这种关联较弱。特别是，在自闭症谱系障碍程度较重的自闭症儿童、女性自闭症儿童和 6-12 岁的自闭症儿童中，没有观察到这种关联。总之，身体活动是帮助儿童获得足够睡眠时间的一种有前途的方法。然而，对于某些自闭症儿童群体，可能需要更个性化的方法来改善睡眠。
