Köse S, et al. - The sleep problems and their correlations in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability without ASD (ID), and typically developing children (TDC) were assessed in this study. In children with ASD and ID, sleep disturbances were more frequent than TDC. Factors that increased the risk of sleep disturbances were co-sleeping with parents and family history of sleep problems. Therefore, in children with ID and ASD, behavioral techniques mainly focusing on co-sleeping problems and focusing on parents’ sleep habits could improve the sleep disturbances.

• A total of 142 children (3 - 18 years old) were included: 48 with ASD, 46 with ID, 48 with TDC.
• In order to evaluate sleep disturbances, parents of the children completed the Childhood Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ).
• For each child, the sociodemographic and clinical information were noted on a data form.

• In TDC, ASD and ID groups, the mean total score of CSHQ was 41.56, 47.89 and 51.78 respectively.
• There was no significant difference between ID and ASD groups (p=0.09), while the total CSHQ score was significantly lower in TDC.
• It was revealed that children having a neurodevelopmental disorder had a 2.8-fold increased risk of sleep disturbance.
• The history of sleep disorder in the parents reported a 3.1-fold increased risk.
• A 3.3-fold increased risk was noted with the psychiatric comorbidity in the child and co-sleeping with parents had 13.1-fold increased risk.
• However, co-sleeping with parents and family history of sleep problems significantly increased the risk of sleep disturbance in the binary regression analysis.