Autism and Sleep

From Spectrum News:

Studies over the past few years suggest that sleep problems may stem from the same mutations that underlie other, more characteristic features of autism. These changes may disrupt the circadian clock, a molecular timer that keeps cells in sync with the night-day cycle. So far, no evidence ties any of the top autism genes to the circadian clock. But several genetic conditions associated with autism, including tuberous sclerosis, fragile X syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome, may involve mutations that interfere with the clock. “This is a very active and needed area of investigation,” says Jonathan Lipton, a pediatric neurologist at the Boston Children’s Hospital Sleep Center. The circadian clock is a complex of proteins that forms every 24 hours in almost every cell in the body. It helps regulate the expression of genes, turning up to 40 percent of the genome on or off. (Read more.)