Sleep patterns in children with and without autism spectrum disorders: developmental comparisons.

Hodge et al. (2014) compared sleep in autistic and typical children. They tracked how sleep changed as kids got older.

The study looked at both how long kids slept and how well they slept.

Autistic children slept worse than typical peers. The gap did not close with age.

Problems were biggest in the 6-9 year group. Sleep issues stuck around instead of fading.

Allik et al. (2008) seems to disagree. They also followed autistic kids and saw sleep problems stay flat, but said the 'trajectory parallels typical peers.' The difference is in the lens: Hiie looked at the slope of change, while Danelle looked at the raw gap. Both are true—autistic sleep does not drop further, yet it stays far worse.

Berenguer et al. (2024) adds ADHD to the mix. They show poor sleep hurts communication in both ASD and ADHD. Danelle's pure ASD versus TD picture sets the baseline that Carmen later extends.

Tse et al. (2019) gives hope. A 30-minute weekday activity program raised sleep efficiency for autistic kids. Danelle proves the need; Andy shows a fix.

Do not assume a child will 'grow out' of poor sleep. Screen early and re-check at 6-9 years. Break sleep into pieces—duration, night wakings, latency—instead of one global score. If a family wants a low-cost first step, borrow Andy's weekday active-play plan while you wait for specialist care.