A laboratory study of sleep in Asperger's syndrome

Asperger's syndrome (AS) is a pervasive developmental disorder that may fal l along the autistic spectrum. We compared the sleep of eight patients with AS with that of participants matched for age and gender. Patients with AS showed decreased sleep rime in the first two-thirds of the night, increased number of shifts into REM sleep from a waking epoch, and all but one patie nt showed signs of REM sleep disruption. EEG sleep spindles were significan tly decreased while K complexes and REM sleep rapid eye movements were norm al. Three patients with AS, but none of the comparison participants, showed a pathological index of periodic leg movements in sleep. These observation s show that sleep disorders are associated with AS and suggest that defecti ve sleep control systems may be associated with the clinical picture of AS. NeuroReport 11:127-130 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.