An investigation of sleep characteristics, EEG abnormalities and epilepsy in developmentally regressed and non-regressed children with autism.

Giannotti et al. (2008) compared three groups of children: kids with autism who had lost early skills (regressed), kids with autism who had not lost skills, and typically developing kids.

They asked parents about sleep habits, ran overnight EEGs, and checked medical charts for epilepsy.

The regressed autism group had the worst sleep. They woke more, had weaker circadian rhythms, and scored poorest on every sleep-habits item.

They also showed the highest rate of epilepsy and abnormal EEG spikes, even when no seizure had been seen before.

Prigge et al. (2013) pooled 85 studies and found about one in three autistic children regress; Flavia’s sleep-EEG warning fits this large slice of the population.

García-Villamisar et al. (2017) later added that regressed youth are also more likely to have intellectual disability and end up in restrictive classrooms—so sleep and EEG red flags now join cognitive and placement red flags.

Martinez-Cayuelas et al. (2024) looked at circadian temperature rhythms and saw the worst patterns in autistic kids who also have ADHD; Flavia did not test for ADHD, so the new work hints that double diagnoses may sleep even worse.

Mazurek et al. (2019) followed sleep over four years and showed it can worsen or improve; Flavia’s snapshot warns that regressed kids may start the trajectory with the hardest nights.

If intake history mentions lost language or play, screen sleep with a short parent diary and consider an EEG referral. Treating sleep or catching epilepsy early can boost learning readiness and lower daytime problem behavior.