Insomnia Severity in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder is Associated with sensory Hyper-Reactivity and Social Skill Impairment.

Insomnia Severity in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder is Associated with sensory Hyper-Reactivity and Social Skill Impairment.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Feb 09;:
Authors: Hohn VD, de Veld DMJ, Mataw KJS, van Someren EJW, Begeer S
Abstract
Insomnia is a common source of distress in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two characteristics of ASD could be relevant to insomnia complaints by hampering the entrainment of a circadian sleep-wake rhythm. First, sensory hyper-reactivity could lead to bright light avoidance and thus affect photoperiodic input to the circadian system. Second, impaired social skills complicate the establishment of a social interactions and thus affect scheduled social-behavioral input to the circadian system. We investigated the association of insomnia severity with sensory reactivity and social skills in 631 adults (18-65 years) with ASD. Results revealed positive associations of insomnia severity with general and visual sensory hyper-reactivity and with impairment of social skills. The findings warrant further studies which (1) directly assess whether a suboptimal functioning of the biological clock underlies these associations and (2) identify other factors that could contribute to observed sleep problems.
PMID: 30737588 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - February 9, 2019 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Hohn VD, de Veld DMJ, Mataw KJS, van Someren EJW, Begeer S Tags: J Autism Dev Disord Source Type: research