Background and Aims:
 The main goal of the project is to examine sleep disorders in children and adolescents in the autism spectrum, and the possible connections of these disorders with sensory, anxiety and depression disorders. Circadian rhythm sleep disorders (CRSD) are known to affect a great number of ASD patients, however previous research has not responded to how much this is due to family factors, and if there is a comorbidity with mood and sensory disorders.  

Methods:
100 ASD children recruited from the Children’s Hospital held by the Warsaw Medical University alongside their healthy siblings. All children have to be between 8 and 18 years of age, have an IQ of 70 and above, and have not been diagnosed for other psychiatric or neurological disorders. Participants must have basic communication skills.
First, all children will be tested against ASD using the newest version of ADOS 2. Then, children will be tested against mood and sensory disorders that are known to affect sleep. All children will have to fill sleep diaries according to the instructions, and a new device measuring cicardian rhythms will be given in order to test children’s sleep movements.

Results:
There will be a significant difference between sleep of children with ASD and their siblings compared to healthy subjects and their siblings.

Conclusions:
Verifying the existing research hypotheses will allow a better understanding of the nature of sleep disorders and will explain the causes of circadian rhythm disorders in people with ASD.

14 - DISORDERS OF CICARDIAN RHYTMS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS