Interactions of Sleep and Repetitive Behavior in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, and Intellectual Disability

In a Healthy Brain Network community sample of 2,394 youths aged 5–21, sleep disturbance and restricted and repetitive behaviors are linked (beta = .30, p < .001).

• Why it matters: Sleep problems and repetitive behaviors co-occur in neurodevelopmental conditions, but it is unclear whether their interplay differs by diagnosis or by symptom dimensions.
• What they did: A preregistered cross-sectional linear regression used parent-reported sleep disturbance and RRB severity, testing diagnostic categories and symptom dimensions (autistic traits, ADHD traits, IQ).
• The result: Sleep disturbance predicted RRBs across autistic and ADHD trait levels, with the strongest effect at high autistic and low ADHD traits (beta = .16) and the weakest when both were high (beta = .13).

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