A new study finds that children with autism spectrum disorder do not sleep better with weighted blankets, reports Helio.
Paul Gringras, MBChB, MRCP, MsC, of Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and colleagues evaluated 67 children aged 5 to 16 years with a confirmed ASD diagnosis and severe sleep problems for 10 months to determine the effect of weighted blankets on sleep duration, time to fall asleep and times waking throughout the night. Participants used a weighted blanket or usual weight blanket (control) for 2 weeks each.
At baseline, no differences were found between the groups for total sleep time, average sleep onset latency, average sleep efficiency, duration of wake after sleep onset and average number of night wakening.
