Autism and sleep disorders

• May 4, 2024

Autism is a psychiatric disorder that occurs from childhood. Recent research has shown that it can cause a delay and disorganization of brain development and affect the sleep of patients.

Although there are not many studies on the relationship of autism and sleep disorders, it is known that it is common for people with psychiatric disorders to have sleep disorders that aggravate the symptoms of mental disorder.

Sleep periods in children with autism are disrupted: they sleep less, they have difficulty falling asleep, they wake up frequently at night, their sleep is fragmented and afterwards they have difficulties to go back to sleep, besides there is low efficiency of sleep and daytime sleepiness.

In the Faculty of Psychology of the UNAM, Dr. Fructuoso Ayala Guerrero He has been working in the dream area for 40 years. He has detected that patients with psychiatric disorders have sleep disorders, so he conducts studies on autism and sleep.

The dream, by itself, is a process that human beings live and that is fundamental for a good functioning of the organism. When the individual does not sleep properly, there are disorders that involve both the mind and the body.

In relation to the mind, there are problems of learning, memory, mood, depression and anxiety, in addition to the body has problems of fatigue and general malaise.

The dream is not a unitary process. Previously it was thought that it started when the individual slept at night and ended on waking in the morning. Now we know that normal sleep is organized by cycles that repeat every 90 minutes. Each one ends one starts another, in such a way that 3 to 6 cycles take place every night.

In what is known as slow sleep, the brain activity that is recorded is slow and large. In turn, it is divided into three stages, after which the rapid eye movements or MOR are presented, in this phase is when the person dreams and lasts about fifteen minutes.

This normal sleep activity can be altered by several factors. Some are internal and others caused by the environment. There are more than 90 sleep disorders identified and classified worldwide.

"We have detected that patients with autism sleep relatively little and we do not know if it is the lack of sleep that produces these deteriorations of the cerebral functioning, or, these problems of the cerebral functioning are those that give origin to the alterations of the dream", said .

The specialist's working group is currently studying the problem to find answers and implement techniques that can support autistic children.

According to Dr. Fructuoso Ayala, "in the population of people with autistic spectrum disorder, information is lacking to be able to relate the problems of nocturnal sleep with disorders of their diurnal behavior. However, the few existing evidence has suggested a certain relationship. "

Video Medicine: Sleep 101 for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (May 2024).