Evaluación de la fragmentación del sueño en niños con trastorno del espectro autista

Introduction

Disruption in sleep continuity can be assessed by the sleep fragmentation index (SFI), a measure that has proven useful in the evaluation of individuals with various sleep disorders. Problems with sleep structure are present in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the SFI has not been evaluated in this type of population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the SFI in a group of children with ASD and in a group of typically developing (TD) children.

Methods

Polysomnography recordings were performed in 19 children with ASD of mean age 10.1 (± 2.5) years and in 19 children with TD of mean age 10.8 (± 2.5) years. In both groups, the Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the SFI , total sleep time, percentages of sleep stages, wake after sleep onset, sleep onset latency and REM sleep latency.

Results

Of the sleep variables evaluated, in the ASD group the percentage of REM sleep was significantly lower, while REM sleep latency was significantly higher.

Conclusions

Sleep fragmentation is not a characteristic feature of ASD. Significant variation in REM sleep provides evidence in favor of the hypothesis of REM sleep deficiency in ASD.