A new study in the “HealthDay News” in January 2020, suggests those who deal with autism have shallower than normal brain waves which may play a role in serious sleep problems.
Previous Research
Previous research has shown that between 40% and 80% of children with autism have sleep issues, such as trouble falling asleep, waking frequently during the night and then waking up early.
Ben-Gurion University Research on Autism
According to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, identifying the causes of these sleep disturbances is important in being able to find ways to ease them. Researchers recorded the brain activity of 29 children with autism and 23 children without autism throughout an entire night’s sleep.
Research recordings
According to the Study Leader, Ilan Dinstein, Head of the National Autism Research Centre of Israel found that children with more serious sleep issues showed brain activity that indicated more shallow and superficial sleep.
Normal sleep patterns start with periods of deep sleep marked by high amplitude slow brain waves, the study’s author explained in a university news release. This study found the brain waves of children with autism are on average 25% weaker and shallower than those of children without autism.
The Study Results
The study also showed that children with autism, had trouble in entering deep sleep, the most crucial part of achieving rest and rejuvenation, according to the report which was published recently in the journal ‘Sleep.’
The next step is to determine ways to promote deeper sleep and larger brain waves in children with autism, the researchers said. It could include increased physical activity, behavioural therapy and drug treatment, such as medical cannabis. Now 57 years in and I finally have some answers. (Source: webmdcom)
I am pleased yet another piece of your jigsaw has been found 'down the back of the chair.'
I am sure it is helpful that you have an explanation for your sleep patterns, although I suspect that with many such puzzles, yours may never get finished.
Thanks. Yes, when you say, 'yours may never get finished' I think you may be right. Not knowing about autism and how I get to sleep until now is something else I will now have to come to terms to.
Although I have a platform to talk about my experiences, and how I got to this place I feel will never diminish. Everything I have come to know about myself, are as raw today as they were 11 years ago, when I original found out about cerebral palsy.
To wait until you're 46 years and to get over not knowing about a disability you deal with and yet you know you continue to struggle; to obtain a diagnosis you should have known about at the age of 2 is too great an ask. It's not something you 'just' get over or come through.
My website helps me to rationale and put my thoughts out there about my experiences, but it can never replace the 'wilful act' of being kept in the dark for so long.