Could autism be caused by lack of sleep?

[sharptoothlemonshark]

I don't mean the disrupted sleep all babies and toddlers put their parents through, I mean serious sleep deprivation at an early age. Or deprivation of one type of sleep.

With everything we now know of the need for adequate sleep for brain development, it makes sense that babies who do not get enough are not going to develop normally neurologically.

And many parents with children who have serious ASD report MASSIVE lack of sleep, well beyond normal

Anybody have any insights into this link? Which way round is the cause and effect? or could it be a vicious circle?

YABU - no, asd cannot be caused by lack of sleep/ my autistic child always slept well etc

YANBU - my autistic child was sleep deprived/ there might be a causal link between lack of sleep and going on to develop ASD

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7999368/
Basically we don't know yet, but there could be a link between maternal health in pregnancy and some babies developing autism.

My autistic son slept great as a baby.

Not saying sleep deprivation couldn't cause a development issue but not Autism I don't think.

I was about to type a long reply but decided not to bother.

You haven't thought this through well at all.

I suspect you are basing this on a sample size of 1.

Autistic here.

I sleep like a log. Always have.

HTH

Same! He doesn’t sleep well now but as a newborn/young baby I’d have to wake him for feeds. He could easily go 8-12 hours then nap all day too. When he was awake he just lay on a play mat. It was very unusual.

@Sunnytimesarecoming basically we don't know is pretty much the opposite of we know.

FFS

Interesting how many people are reporting children with ASD who are having very abnormal sleep, but in increased length of sleep, rather than decreased. That also indicates that there is an issue with the balance of types of sleep

Isn't it potentially a symptom more than a cause?
Broken sleep patterns can be draining on anyone, ND or not.

www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l962
And exposure to pesticides.
From what I recall, maternal vitamin D level may play a part too, for a small number of cases.
FWIW I think it's 99% genetic however if it was purely genetic then why are socioeconomic factors relevant in diagnosis. It's not purely a medical issue.

no, on a sample size of around 800. Many of whom were sleep deprived as babies. But some of whom slept well.

I think having an abnormally long sleeping time is also indicative of something not going right with sleep.

Huh? How did you come to this conclusion? Given how complex and varying Autism is, there being one cause makes zero sense.

I slept a lot as a baby and still do.

But this is as a result of autism, not a cause.

It could be a factor. There could be several different pathways to ASD symptoms developing. At the moment diagnosis is based on presenting with a collection of symptoms.

Children are getting less sleep now than they have in the past. I don’t see why it couldn’t be be a factor in the increased incidence of SEN more generally given what we know about how important sleep is for brain development.

Autism is genetic and exists from birth you can't 'develop' autism.

Poor sleep is a symptom not a cause. Of course poor sleep is then linked to poor mental health as I see with my own child.

My autistic child was an excellent sleeper as a baby - much better than my other children. As she got older she began to struggle more with sleep.

There is so much we don't know about autism. I think that's all anyone can say. My daughter slept like a log. She's autistic. I don't know if that's a retrospective musing on my part. I'm sure we could all think of things which are similar and different about our children and how they were as babies, how we found pregnancy, what we are, did, whether it was our first or sixth. We just don't know enough.

My autistic son slept very badly as a baby. However, it is not the cause of autism. You are born with autism. It doesn't just happen.

The socioeconomic factors are also symptoms of individuals reduced ability to function as society expects. It's hardly surprising that an ND parent will live under socioeconomic duress.

well, maybe it is! But why do we assume it is? Surely we should expect abnormal neurological development in sleep deprived babies, and lo! sleep deprived babies often show abnormal neurological development!

Why do we assume that autism causes sleep disturbance, rather than sleep disturbance causes autism?

If we get closer to understanding the cause, we get closer to being able to prevent or treat it, or limit the damage

Are you doing a research in this area? If so, you should really make yourself aware of the difference between association and direction of causality.

Two of my children slept very poorly for years. Neither is neurodivergent.

My DC are autistic. All have very different sleep needs and patterns, all pretty much there since birth and never changed.
I agree with the thought that sleep issues are a symptom not a cause.

If we get closer to understanding the cause, we get closer to being able to prevent or treat it, or limit the damage

I am really struggling not to just be rude to you, but a lot of your posts are ableist and misunderstand autism.

You don’t develop autism just as you can’t be “cured” of it, because it’s not a medical condition.

Nope, my son slept loads when he was a baby, still autistic!

@KickboxingWanker I agree with you, I could undress/ redress him, change his nappy etc and he would sleep through it. He also never seemed to care if I left the room, which I think now might have been because he was in his own world.
Ironically now at 10, he doesn't like sleep and would be glued to me if he could be

What's your motivation here, OP?

Are you just idly wondering? If so, it's not helpful. It just feeds into the "you must have done something wrong as a parent" narrative.

Every week, its someone piping up about screens, chemicals, blah. Now sleep. Eh? It doesn't even make sense. People seem so desperate to find a reason, but those people rarely have skin in the game so to speak.

I'm Autistic. My DD is Autistic. It's genetic.