Daytime sleep patterns in preschool children with autism, developmental delay, and typical development

Abstract

The present study examined daytime sleep patterns in 3 groups of preschool-aged children: children with autism, children with developmental delay, and children who were developing typically. Sleep was assessed in 194 children via actigraphy and parent-report sleep diaries for 7 consecutive days on 3 separate occasions over 6 months. Children with autism napped less often and for shorter periods of time than children with developmental disability, with whom they were matched on chronologic age. Children with developmental disabilities napped more like children in the typically developing group, who were, on average, 6 months younger. Each group displayed an expected shift in daytime sleep as more children matured out of their naps.

FIGURE 1

Estimated trajectories of sleep behaviors and between-child and within-child variability by diagnosis for bedtime and 24-hr sleep at enrollment (Time 1), 3 months later (Time 2), and 6 months after enrollment (Time 3). Note. Figure portrays the estimated average paths for bedtime and 24-hr sleep over 6 months. The horizontal lines depict the estimated mean trajectories over time for each group. The error bars in Figure 1a and 1c represent the variability around the mean of each diagnostic group (between-child standard deviations). The error bars in Figure 1b and 1d represent the night-to-night variability for each diagnostic group (within-child standard deviations). Children in the typically developing (TYP) group had a trend to gradually go to bed later over time (p < .10), and this change was significantly different from both of the neurodevelopmentally disordered groups (both ps < .05). All children had a slight decline in their average 24-hr sleep over time (p < .05). As expected, within-child variability, determined by the size of the error bars in Figure 1b and 1d, was greater than between-child variability, as depicted in Figure 1a and 1c, for all three diagnostic groups. AUT = autism; DD = developmental delay without AUT.