Babies who sleep less are more likely to grow up with autistic traits

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-05-12 00:01

Australia; VIC

Photo by hessam nabavi on Unsplash

Babies who sleep less or have poorer sleep quality are more likely to develop autistic traits and subsequently be diagnosed with autism, according to Australian research. In a cohort of just over 1000 mother-infant pairs, the researchers surveyed parents about their baby's sleep patterns at six and 12 months of age, and then looked at the child's parent-reported autism characteristics at two and four years old. Before the children had turned 12, 64 had been diagnosed with autism. The researchers say poor sleep quality as a baby was consistently linked to more autism characteristics and a later autism diagnosis, and while it is not yet clear why this link exists, it means sleep issues could be an early indicator of autism.

Journal/
conference: Archives of Disease in Childhood

Organisation/s: Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), Deakin University, The University of Melbourne

Funder: The establishment work and infrastructure for the BIS was provided by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Deakin University and Barwon Health. Subsequent funding was secured from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), The Shepherd Foundation, The Jack Brockhoff Foundation, the Scobie & Claire McKinnon Trust, the Shane O'Brien Memorial Asthma Foundation, the Our Women Our Children's Fund Raising Committee Barwon Health, the Rotary Club of Geelong, the Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation, Geelong Medical and Hospital Benefits Association, Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd, the Percy Baxter Charitable Trust, Perpetual Trustees William and Vera Ellen Houston Memorial Trust Fund. In-kind support was provided by the Cotton On Foundation and CreativeForce. The study sponsors were not involved in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the report for publication. Research at Murdoch Children's Research Institute is supported by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program.

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