Improving sleep quality in children with ASD may improve cognitive functioning

Children with autism spectrum disorder exhibited better memory consolidation across sleep than in wake conditions, despite poorer sleep quality, according to data presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.

“Overwhelming evidence shows that sleep is important for the consolidation of newly acquired memories. While sleep disturbances among children with ASDs are a major clinical concern, it is unclear how these sleep disturbances affect their memory consolidation,” Kiran Maski, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard University, and colleagues wrote.

To determine if sleep disturbances among children with ASD lead to failure of memory consolidation dependent upon overnight sleep, researchers assessed 22 children with ASD and 20 children without ASD. Children with ASD had a mean age of 11.4 years and controls had a mean age of 12.3 years. Participants were trained and tested on a two-dimensional object location task. They were retested 10 hours later over a period of wake and sleep. Difference in performance at retesting minus the performance at the last trial at learning indicated memory consolidation. Overnight sleep was determined via home polysomnography.

While children with ASD had poorer sleep efficiency (P < .001), there was no significant difference in sleep architecture between groups, according to researchers.

Overall, children with ASD exhibited poorer memory consolidation compared with controls (P = .02).

Both groups exhibited better memory consolidation across the sleep interval compared with the wake interval (P < .05).

“This is the first report showing that despite their more disturbed sleep quality, children with ASD still demonstrate more stable memory consolidation across sleep than in wake conditions. Our results suggest that improving sleep quality in children with ASD could have direct benefits to improving their overall cognitive functioning,” the researchers concluded. – by Amanda Oldt

Reference:

Maski K, et al. Sleep dependent memory consolidation in children with autism spectrum disorders. Presented at: American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; April 15-21, 2016; Vancouver, British Columbia.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.