Hello yesman-ga!
I agree with your comment..."I really like this question and hope it
gets answered soon." It is a fascinating subject and I'll be happy to
answer it for you!
Here are a few articles I have found concerning autism and the
connection with sleep disorders!
===
"Autism Characterization of Sleep Disorders," by Peter T. Yu and Dr.
Judy H. Miles, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Genetics
http://www.hsc.missouri.edu/~research/srd2002/YuPeter2002.PDF
"Autism is a neurobehavioral disorder diagnosed by abnormal social,
language and repetitive behaviors. Sleep disruption is an additional
problematic symptom. Because the nature and frequency of sleep
problems in autism is poorly understood, we analyzed parental sleep
reports for 163 children seen in the University of Missouri Autism
Clinic from 1996-2002. The prevalence of insomnias, parasomnias and
circadian rhythm disorders was determined and subject comparisons were
made. We found a high prevalence (85.3%, 139/163) of sleep disorders,
regardless of age, IQ, seizures, regressive onset, dysmorphology or
essential/complex designation. Essential autism (not dysmorphic,
normal CH, structurally normal brain) is a more homogenous, genetic
autism subtype. Insomnia occurred in 69.3% (113/163) of subjects. The
prevalence of insomnia was not significantly different between the
essential and complex groups. The prevalence of parasomnias (77.3%,
126/163) was reported to be higher than insomnias. The most common
parasomnias were night wandering (20.9%), bruxism (24.5%), snoring
(34.4%), and bedwetting (31.3%). These parasomnias were significantly
more common than in typical children. Nighttime wandering occurred 2.4
times more in children with essential autism, suggesting that this
problem may be more specific to autism than other developmental
disorders. Nighttime enuresis was most frequent among 5-11 year olds
with complex autism (p=.024). Between the insomnia and parasomnia
categories, subjects were more likely to suffer from parasomnias alone
(26.4%, 43/163) than insomnia alone (6.1%, 10/163), [p=7.3e-7].
Circadian rhythm disorders were not a significant problem in this
population. These results indicate that sleep problems, particularly
parasomnias, are common in autism and its subgroups.
==
Seretonin levels may be abnormal if autism and sleep disorders
coexist.
"Autism." Pathways Medical Advocates, Inc.
http://www.pathwaysmed.com/105.htm
"If there is a history of disordered sleep or some behavioral
disturbances then a serotonin level will be checked. Serotonin is a
neurotransmitter, which affects behavior and is transformed at night
to melatonin, which helps control our circadian rhythm. Melatonin is
also a very powerful antioxidant for the brain and is very important
when chelation is performed.
===
"Autism and Melatonin." Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory.
http://www.gsdl.com/assessments/finddisease/autism/melatonin.html
Excerpts follow:
"The pineal gland in the brain secretes the hormone melatonin in
response to the light-dark cycle. Melatonin regulates body
temperature, the sleep cycle, hormone activity and other circadian
functions run by the body's internal biological clock. At night,
higher levels of melatonin are released to induce sleepiness; levels
drop during early morning hours and throughout the day to promote
alertness. Disruptions in this normal secretion pattern have been
linked to various types of sleep disturbances.
Evidence suggests that autistic children are much more prone to
circadian rhythm dysfunction and disrupted sleep patterns than their
healthy peers.1 These problems may be rooted in a number of
dysfunctions related to melatonin production and secretion.
Clinical research has linked abnormal levels of tryptophan and
serotonin, which the body uses as source material for producing
melatonin, to autistic behavioral symptoms in adults.2-4
Researchers Chamberlain and Herman of the Brain Research Center at the
Children's National Medical Center have suggested that autistic
children may oversecrete melatonin, triggering a chain of hormonal and
biochemical reactions affecting opioids and neurotransmitters that act
on the brain.5 Yet some studies have observed that nightly melatonin
supplementation in children with autism and other neurological and
developmental disorders appears to improve sleep patterns in up to 80%
of these children.6 In one Japanese study, utilizing melatonin to
improve the sleep habits of autistic children also reduced the amount
of emotional and behavior problems in the children.7
That both high and low levels of melatonin have been associated with
autism may arise from disruptions in circadian rhythms that manifest
uniquely in each autistic individual, and differently at different
ages. Indeed, an abnormal circadian secretion pattern of melatonin has
even been called a "biological parameter" of the condition.8
(Please refer to Bibliography for some interesting resources!)
====
"Specific Conditions and Sleep Disorders," by Leslie E. Packer, PhD.
http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/sleep_conditions.htm
Autism:
"Sleep problems have long been noted in autistic children (Schreck et
al., 2000), but the impression of the extent and nature of
difficulties depends, in part, on what methodology you use to study
the problem. Hering et al. (1999) compared questionnaire data to data
obtained by actigraphy and reported that while questionnaire responses
indicated that autistic children had earlier morning awakening and
multiple and early night arousals/awakenings, actigraphy indicated
that although there was an earlier morning awakening time, the sleep
patterns of autistic children were similar to that of normal children
in other respects."
"Their findings are somewhat in contrast to those reported by Elia et
al. (2000), who used polysomnography measures. These investigators
reported that while density of rapid eye movements was not
significantly different in their three groups of subjects, some sleep
parameters such as time in bed, sleep period time, and total sleep
time were significantly lower in subjects with autistic disorder than
in normal controls. Similarly, Godbout et al. (2000) found significant
differences between patients with Asperger's and normal controls on
measures such as sleep time, shifts into REM stage, and periodic leg
movements."
"The Elia study also reported that some of the sleep measures were
significantly correlated with the child's functioning. Nonverbal
communication showed significant correlation with sleep period time,
wakefulness after sleep onset, and total sleep time. Relating to
people and activity level items were found to be significantly
correlated with rapid eye movement density."
====
Dreaming and Autism
"Dreaming Linked to Brain Development," by William J. Cromie. Harvard
University Gazette.
(May 1998)
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/05.28/DreamingLinkedt.html
"Autistic children show disturbed eye movements during their REM
sleep. Eye movement patterns of two- to five-year-old autistics
resemble those of normal kids less than 18 months old."
"Anderson interprets this finding as an indication of abnormal brain
development. It may be possible, he says, to use fractal analysis of
REM patterns as a way to detect autism. Another question to be
answered is whether abnormal eye movements change when the children
become more responsive to treatments for autism."
====
"A Laboratory Study of Sleep and Dreaming in a Case of Asperger's
Syndrome," by Roger Godbout, Cybčle Bergeron, Emmanuel Stip, and
Laurent Mottron. Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of
Dreams. Vol 8(2) 75-88, Jun 1998.
http://www.asdreams.org/journal/issues/asdj8-02.htm
Abstract:
"Asperger's Syndrome (AS) is a pervasive developmental disorder whose
continuity with High-Functioning Autism is still a matter of debate.
Clinical observations suggest that patients with AS may present the
same sleep disorders as autistic patients, including difficulties in
initiating and maintaining sleep as well as poor dream recall. We
recorded the sleep of a 25-year-old male patient with AS for two
nights using a full EEG montage and compared the second night to that
of a group of normal participants. We found low levels of slow wave
sleep (SWS: stages 3 + 4), high levels of stage 1, and a large number
of awakenings. The organization of REM sleep was unremarkable,
including normal REM density. Analyses of phasic EEG events revealed a
very low incidence of sleep spindles and a normal number of
K-complexes over bilateral frontal and central EEG leads. In order to
collect dream reports, the patient was awakened three times over two
nights following at least 15 minutes of REM sleep in each case. On
each occasion the patient was not aware of any mental activity
happening just prior to awakening. These observations are discussed
with regards to the connections that may exist between EEG sleep
spindle activity, selective attention, and the capacity to generate a
dream report."
====
"Autism and Language: Description and Diagnosis."
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~eneuhaus/psychology/website.html
"...studies of the ability of kids with autism to describe "what is
inside your head" (Baron-Cohen, Ring, Moriarty, Schmitz, Costa, & Ell,
1994, p. 641) show that they are less likely to use mental state terms
such as thinking, remembering and dreaming. Some researchers suggest
that studies such as these support the idea that individuals with
autism lack a theory of mind."
Reference cited in excerpt:
Baron-Cohen, S., Ring, H., Moriarty, J., Schmitz, B., Costa, D., &
Ell, P. (1994). Recognition of mental state terms: Clinical findings
in children with autism and a functional neuroimaging study of normal
adults. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 640-649.
===
You will have to find a good library to access this interesting
article:
Durand, V.M. (2002). Treating sleep terrors in children with autism.
Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 4, 66-72.
===
While it would be extremely interesting to know what autistic people
dream about, there is little research into this subject....probably
due to language and comunication problems among autistic individuals!
I hope the above articles and bibliographies provide you with some
interesting reading, however!
umiat-ga
Google Search Strategy
autism AND sleep disorders
dreaming AND autism |
