The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Eleonora Sadikova, Micah O Mazurek
PMID 38970717WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism who had experienced more adverse childhood events were less likely to get the recommended amount of sleep.
This link held even after accounting for age, race, health, and autism severity. Sleep problems were also more common in Black children and those with moderate or severe autism.
Key findings
01After accounting for demographics and health factors, each additional adverse childhood experience was associated with a 9% lower likelihood of getting the recommended hours of sleep.
02Black children were 48% less likely to get the recommended hours of sleep than White children.
03Children with moderate or severe autism were 26% less likely to get the recommended hours of sleep than those with mild autism.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, meaning it looked at data from one point in time. It cannot prove that adverse experiences caused sleep problems, only that they are linked. All data, including sleep duration and adverse experiences, relied on parent report. There were no objective measures like actigraphy or sleep diaries. The definition of 'adequate sleep' was based on general population guidelines, which may not fully account for the specific sleep architecture or needs of children with autism. The sample was limited to children whose parents had already identified an autism diagnosis, potentially excluding those with undiagnosed autism who might have different sleep or adverse experience profiles.
Declared interests
The provided text does not contain a funding or conflict of interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that adverse childhood experiences directly cause the sleep problems, as this was a correlational study using parent-reported data. Also, do not overlook the strong associations with race and autism severity, which were significant independent factors in the model.
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 →