Nightmares in Children with FASD, ASD and Their Typically Developing Peers
Rabya Mughal, Siu Sing Wong, Dagmara Dimitriou, Elizabeth J. Halstead
Preprints.org August 3, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.20944/preprints202108.0079.v1 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractCaregivers of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) report nightmares in 73.62% of cases, compared to 40.3% for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and 21.36% for typically developing (TD) children. This is the first study to analyze nightmare frequency and content in FASD. Correlation analyses show significant associations between anxiety, maladaptive behavior, executive functioning, and nightmares in the TD and FASD groups, but not the ASD group. The authors argue that sleep interventions should be part of clinical practice for children with ASD and FASD, and that further research is needed.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 277 |
| Population | Caregivers of children with ASD, FASD, and typically developing children |
| Topics | Anxiety Dreaming |
| Keywords | Cbcl Autism spectrum disorder Clinical psychology |
| Key finding | Nightmares are more prevalent in children with FASD (73.62%) and ASD (40.3%) than in typically developing children (21.36%), and anxiety, maladaptive behavior, and executive functioning correlate with nightmares in the FASD and TD groups but not the ASD group. |
Abstract
Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) experience significantly higher rates of sleep disturbances than their typically developing peers. Pre-sleep anxiety and waking emotional content is known to affect the content and frequency of nightmares, which can be distressing to children and caregivers. This is the first study to analyse nightmare frequency and content in FASD, and to assess its association with psychometric outcomes. We assessed reports from 277 caregivers of children with ASD (n=61), FASD (n=112), and TD children (n=104) using the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Behavior Rating Inventory for Executive Functioning (BRIEF). Within the ASD group, 40.3% of caregivers reported their children had nightmares. Within the FASD group, 73.62% of caregivers reported their children had nightmares and within the TD group, 21.36% of caregivers reported their children had nightmares. Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between anxiety and nightmares, maladaptive behaviour and nightmares, and executive functioning and nightmares in the TD and FASD groups, but not ASD group. This paper adds to the emerging body of work supporting the need for sleep interventions as part of clinical practice with regard to children with ASD and FASD. As a relatively niche but important area of study this warrants much needed further research.