What is it about?
Autism spectrum disorders are associated with a high rate of sleep challenges. This article describes what is known about the causes of sleep problems, how to assess sleep problems in clinical practice, and strategies for improving sleep in children with autism.
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Why is it important?
Sleep problems have negative effects on health, behavior, mood, and learning, but often go undetected in autistic children. Learning how to detect and address sleep problems can have positive effects on children and their families.
Perspectives
This article was exciting to write because it was a collaboration between co-authors from different disciplines. One author is a child psychologist, one is a physician who specializes in pediatric sleep medicine and pulmonology and one is a student and behavior technician who works with young children and their parents. This helped create a multifaceted perspective on autism and sleep that we hope you find interesting.
Annette Estes
University of Washington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sleep and Autism: Current Research, Clinical Assessment, and Treatment Strategies, FOCUS The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry, April 2024, American Psychiatric Association,
DOI: 10.1176/appi.focus.20230028.
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