Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41609987›Full record

ArticleJournal of autism and developmental disorders2026

Sleep and Behaviour in Early Autism: Examining Bidirectional Associations Near Diagnosis.

Nancy Sadka, Amanda L Richdale, Xia Li, Perrin Date, Josephine Barbaro

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Article in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Nancy Sadka *Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. n.sadka@latrobe.edu.au.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6582-6784
Amanda L Richdale *Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4911-7181
Xia LiResearch and Infrastructure, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1890-5548
Perrin DateOlga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0002-8560-1149
Josephine BarbaroOlga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7359-0097

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeSleep problems and behavioural challenges are examined rarely in very young autistic children. We investigated sleep in 173 autistic children, close to their autism diagnosis (M

methodsCaregivers of 173 autistic children (M

resultsMost children (71.9%) had two or more sleep problems. The TSP and NSP groups did not differ on behaviour, showing significantly less hyperactivity, aggression, attention, and atypicality than the SSP group. Night waking/parasomnias, daytime alertness, and sleep initiation/duration for both sleep problem groups strongly correlated with increased hyperactivity, attention, anxiety, depression, and aggression. Sleep explained 38.4% of variance and 61.8% variance in behaviour, and behaviour explained 22.4% of variance and 32.1% of variance in sleep, for the TSP and SSP groups respectively.

conclusionReciprocal relationships between sleep and behaviour in autism emphasise the importance of addressing sleep problems in young autistic children, at the time of diagnosis, as they can negatively impact behaviour and well-being.

Indexed as

AutismBehavioural difficultiesEarly diagnosisSleep problemsYoung children

Identifiers

PMID41609987

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.