O’Hara’s work suggests that problems with breathing during sleep could also be the culprit in many cases. Poor slumber is known to arise from any number of other causes, too: medication side effects, too much stimulation at bedtime or medical disorders ranging from anxiety and epilepsy to restless legs syndrome and gastrointestinal problems. One school of thought blames malfunctions in the body’s 24-hour biological ‘clock’ - called the circadian rhythm - perhaps due to dysregulation of the hormone melatonin, which is involved in controlling the sleep-wake cycle. It’s unclear exactly why or how sleep is derailed more often in people with autism than in the general population, but a few theories have begun to emerge. By improving sleep, symptoms in these areas may also improve. “Sleep disturbance impacts cognition, it impacts mood, and it impacts behavior,” she says - domains that are also affected by autism. Sleep deprivation isn’t merely unpleasant, O’Hara points out: Increasingly, researchers are recognizing that sleep is critical for brain development and health. Wired for bedtime: Haley Bennett distracts her daughter Bramli with treats while researchers attach sensors to monitor the girl during sleep.īramli’s overnight assessment is part of a study that O’Hara is leading to understand why so many of these children have so much trouble sleeping. “It’s very, very disruptive to the family,” says Ruth O’Hara, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University in California. With sleep disturbances afflicting at least half of children with autism, such bedtime horror stories are common in households such as the Bennetts’. Bramli, for example, often gets out of bed and climbs about in her closet, and her parents have to tuck her back in six or eight times before she finally goes down sometime between 10:30 p.m. Each night, it takes hours for the two to fall asleep. Their brood of four includes Bramli and 7-year-old Ryker, who also has autism. It was worth it to Bennett and her husband if it could possibly bring some peace to their evenings. “But at the same time, when you’re looking at a life of never sleeping, day in and day out, it’s worth it in the end.” “None of us like to have our children be uncomfortable for any reason,” Bennett says. The girl’s mother, Haley Bennett, went all out to distract her with treats that were normally off limits after dinner: lollipops, soda and play time on the Nintendo and mini iPad.Įventually, the girl quieted, sulking on her bed as she watched YouTube music videos.
Just putting all the monitoring equipment on her was no small feat.īramli wriggled, whimpered, moaned and sobbed as two Stanford University researchers gently cajoled her through the hook-up process. But Bramli, who has severe autism and is nonverbal, is an energetic, trampoline-loving whirlwind who doesn’t often sit still for long. The girl was about to undergo an evaluation that would track her brainwaves, eye movements, heart, muscle activity and breathing as she slept. Crowning her head was a snug black spandex cap studded with electrodes connected to black wires that bunched together and ran down her back.
A 5-year-old with curly brown hair, Bramli was dressed in pink-and-green pajamas and rigged from head to toe with more than 20 sensors. on a warm June evening, daylight was fading outside her home in Morgan Hill, California.
Bramli was giving the stink eye to the grown-ups in her room, shooting resentful glances their way.