Sleep Problems Are Common In Children With Asperger Syndrome!

Children with Asperger syndrome are affected by many factors like mood and behavior. Sleep problems are common and a major factor in them.

Children with Asperger syndrome have high prevalence of sleep disorders.

The sleep problems they suffer include initiating sleep, daytime sleepiness, and sleep restlessness.

Asperger syndrome is characterized by the inability to understand how to interact socially and repetitive behavior and restricted interest patterns.

Children with this syndrome have serious impairment in social and communication skills, including poor nonverbal communication.

Children with Asperger syndrome are diagnosed with sleep questionnaire, which helps in evaluating their sleep problem.

• Autism diagnostic observation schedule for assessing communication and social interaction
• Daytime sleepiness scale to evaluate the relationship between daytime sleepiness and school-related outcomes.
• Child behavior to examine daytime behavior in children

Children are also tested for verbal IQ, performance IQ and full scale IQ. Polysomnography is to be conducted to evaluate the sleep patterns of the children.

Several sleep parameters should be taken into account such as sleep period time, time spent in bed, number of awakenings per hour, and sleep efficiency are calculated.

Cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) is a periodic EEG activity of non-REM sleep that is characterized by spontaneous repeated sequences of short lived events with the return to background activity identifying the interval that separates the repetitive elements. It is calculated in children with Asperger syndrome.

Children with Asperger syndrome showed a lower total CAP rate in the first two stages of sleep, but not in the slow wave sleep. The children also showed an increased synchronized EEG pattern percentage and decreased desynchronized EEG pattern percentage.

Children with Asperger syndrome who are in pre-school should sleep between 11 to 13 hours, school-aged children should sleep between 10 to 11 hours and adolescent should sleep for nine hours.

Asperger syndrome in children should be treated for getting better sleep. The treatment steps include:

• Language therapy
• Social skills training
• Medications
• Psychotherapy or cognitive behavior therapy
• Sensory integration training for young children

Children with Asperger syndrome should follow the following tips for better sleep:

• Follow a regular bedtime routine that is going to bed at the same time and getting up in the morning at the same time.
• Establishing a relaxing time before going to bed
• Do not allow your child to watch television or play computer games before bedtime.
• Keep your child away from horror programs, movies and video games that are not right for their age.
• Do not give caffeine related products before bedtime to your child