Comparing sleep patterns between children with autism spectrum disorder and children with typical development: A matched case-control study.

This study compared the sleep pattern between children with autism spectrum disorders and children with typical development using a matched case-control design (matched age, gender, and body mass index). Significant differences were found in night-time sleep duration (total amount of sleep at night), sleep efficiency (percentage of time spent asleep), sleep-onset latency (length of time that it takes to transit from awake to asleep), and wake after sleep onset (total amount of time spent awake after defined sleep onset). Findings showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had poorer sleep quality than children with typical development. Mechanisms underlying the differences should be further explored in order to develop an effective treatment intervention.