Randomised Controlled Trial of a Behavioural Sleep Intervention, 'Sleeping Sound', for Autistic Children: 12-Month Outcomes and Moderators of Treatment.
Emily Pattison, Nicole Papadopoulos, Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz and 9 others
PMID 36414853WHAT IT FOUND
A brief behavioural sleep intervention kept working a year later for autistic children.
Sleep problems, especially trouble falling asleep, stayed significantly better than in usual care. However, children still scored in the clinical range, so many families likely need ongoing support rather than a one-off fix.
Key findings
01Children who received the intervention had significantly fewer total sleep problems at 12 months compared to usual care, with the biggest sustained gain in reduced time to fall asleep.
02Despite these improvements, the average child in the intervention group still had a sleep score in the clinical range at 12 months, and only 16.22% moved into the non-clinical range.
03Sustained benefits were more likely in children who were taking sleep medication, had greater autism severity, or whose parents were not experiencing psychological distress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Nearly 40% of parents did not complete the 12-month survey, which could bias the results if those who dropped out had different outcomes. Sleep was measured only by unblinded parent report, not by objective devices like actigraphy, which raises the risk of reporter bias. The study excluded children with intellectual disability and families who did not speak English, so it is unclear if these findings apply to those groups. The data collection was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected children's routines and sleep patterns. The moderation analyses involved splitting continuous variables into groups, which can reduce statistical power and increase the chance of false positives.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. The text does not report any other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the significant reduction in sleep problems as evidence that the intervention cured the children's sleep issues. The average child in the treatment group still scored in the clinical range for sleep disturbance at 12 months, meaning they continued to have significant problems.