Sleep in Infants with Down Syndrome or Familial Likelihood of Autism in the First Year of Life.
Emma R Coco, Jeffrey Munson, Tanya St John and 13 others
PMID 40549282WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of infants with Down syndrome reported fewer sleep concerns at 6 months despite objective data showing similar sleep patterns to controls.
By 12 months, both Down syndrome and autism-likelihood groups showed less night sleep and more waking than controls, though concerns remained lower in Down syndrome.
Key findings
01At 6 months, parents of infants with Down syndrome reported significantly fewer sleep concerns than parents of infants at low likelihood for autism or high likelihood for autism.
02At 12 months, both infants with Down syndrome and those with high likelihood for autism slept less and woke more at night than infants at low likelihood for autism.
03Longitudinally, night wakefulness increased in the Down syndrome group from 6 to 12 months, whereas it decreased in the low likelihood group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Sleep was measured only by parent report, not objective methods like actigraphy or EEG, so the actual sleep architecture and quality are unknown. The sample was predominantly white, highly educated, and from English-speaking families, which limits generalizability to other populations. The study did not have diagnostic outcomes at 24 months, so it is unclear if sleep differences in the high-likelihood group predict later autism diagnosis. Parental concern about sleep may be biased by normalization of problems in infants with Down syndrome or by competing medical priorities. The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire version used did not have norm-referenced scores, making it harder to interpret absolute severity.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that low parent-reported concern about sleep in infants with Down syndrome at 6 months means there is no sleep problem. The study found that objective sleep characteristics were similar to controls at 6 months but diverged by 12 months, and parents may underreport issues due to normalization or competing medical demands.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →