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Successes Posted on March 22, 2011 by skhov

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reported are fragmented sleep patterns, difficulty Sleep Patterns and Autism
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added stress to the sleep-deprived family.(1)
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autism ages 4-12.(2) Sleep studies conducted on
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The study compared sleep patterns of children with

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autism with those of normally developing children of
the same age group. The data was collected from two
sources; sleep assessment questionnaires and data
obtained from an actigraph unit, a device which
records body motion of the sleeping child in order to
analyze their sleep patterns. The results collected by
the actigraph unit were thought to be more accurate
and objective because they weren’t based on the
variable skills and experience of an observer.

The outcome of this study is enlightening. The

questionnaires revealed that autistic children had
earlier morning wake-up times, along with multiple and
early night wake-ups. The actigraph results showed
that besides the early morning wake up times, sleep
patterns of children with autism were similar to those
of their normally developing counterparts.

It’s easy to understand why parents are concerned

http://blog.hear-our-voices.org/schools-for-autism-in-ny-sleep-patterns-and-autism/[4/12/2011 12:14:24 PM]

Schools for Autism in NY | Sleep Patterns and Autism | Hear Our Voices

about the quality their child’s sleep, but this study

suggests that it may be possible that parents of
children with autism are overly

sensitive to their child’s sleep disturbances when

really their night time activity is not all that different
from those of other children.

[1] Honomichl RD, Goodlin-Jones BL, Burnham M,

Gaylor E, Anders TF. “Sleep Patterns of Children with
Pervasive Developmental Disorders.” Journal of
Autism and Development Disorders. 2002
Dec:32(6):553-61. PMID: 12553592 (PubMed –
Indexed for Medline)

2 Hering E, Epstein R, Elroy S, Iancu DR, Zelnik N.

“Sleep Patterns in Autistic Children.” Journal of Autism
and Development Disorders. 1999 Apr:29(2):143-7.
PMID: 10382134 (PubMed – indexed for Medline)

This entry was posted in Autism and tagged autism donation, autism schools
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http://blog.hear-our-voices.org/schools-for-autism-in-ny-sleep-patterns-and-autism/[4/12/2011 12:14:24 PM]