Sleep Disturbances in Patients with Asperger Syndrome Related to the Severity of their Symptoms

Patients with Asperger syndrome (AS) usually report sleep problems. The objective of this study was to compare the general sleep structure of children with Asperger syndrome to that displayed by healthy children through polysomnographic study. Sleep characteristics were compared to severity of AS symptoms. Two groups of children aged 8–12 years were studied, one group with AS patients and the other with healthy children. Results show that patients with AS had a significant increase in sleep latency, REM latency and a decrease in the number of REM sleep episodes. It was also observed that the AS patients exhibit a correlation between the fragmentation of sleep and the increase in the intensity of the AS symptoms. It is concluded that sleep latency, REM latency and number of episodes are affected in AS patients and the AS symptoms are related to sleep disturbances in patients.