Rapid eye movement sleep percentage in children with autism compared with children with developmental delay and typical development

Abstract

Objective: To compare objective polysomnographic parameters between 3 cohorts: children with autism, typical development, and developmental delay without autism. Design: Overnight polysomnographic recordings were scored for sleep architecture according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine criteria by a board-certified sleep medicine specialist blind to diagnosis for studies collected between July 2006 and September 2009. Setting: Subjects were evaluated in the pediatric ward in the Clinical Research Center of the National Institutes of Health. Participants: First 60 consecutive children with autism, 15 with typical development, and 13 with developmental delay matched for nonverbal IQ to the autism group, ranging in age from 2 to 13 years, selected without regard to the presence or absence of sleep problem behavior. Main Outcome Measures: Total sleep time, latencies to non-rapid eye movement (REM) and REM sleep, and percentages of total sleep time for stages 1 and 2 sleep, slow-wave sleep, and REM sleep. Results: There were no differences between the typical vs developmental delay groups. Comparison of children with autism vs typical children revealed shorter total sleep time (P=.004), greater slow-wave sleep percentage (P=.001), and much smaller REM sleep percentage (14.5% vs 22.6%; P