Establishing OT’s Role in Addressing Sleep Disturbances for Autistic Children: A Rapid Systematic Review

Abstract

This rapid systematic review examined the relationship between various interventions and sleep measures for autistic children and adolescents. Establishing this link can aid occupational therapists in understanding how to select and apply established interventions to practice. A variety of interventions were found within current literature to treat sleep disturbances including melatonin, non-melatonin pharmaceuticals, physical activity, behavioral and educational sleep hygiene, and sensory based interventions. The results indicated that all but the non-pharmaceutical interventions consistently yielded beneficial outcomes in decreasing sleep problems in the autistic children. However, these positive outcomes were briefly sustained once the studies ended. These findings suggest there is a trend within literature that sleep interventions have limitations when attempting to apply them to real-life cases. This dynamic highlights a gap between evidence-based outcomes that may improve sleep deficits in autistic children and the ability for these outcomes to be implemented in family’s homes. Occupational therapists have the potential to fill the gap and provide translational care to assist families in establishing routines backed by evidence. By improving sleep quality in this population, these guided interventions have the potential to improve the overall well-being and life satisfaction of children and their families.