Sound asleep: Sensory decoupling during sleep depends on an infant’s sensory profile

De Laet, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0961-9830, Whitworth, Morgan, Fincham, Hope, Lazar, Alpar, Bedford, Rachael and Gliga, Teodora (2026) Sound asleep: Sensory decoupling during sleep depends on an infant’s sensory profile. Sleep. ISSN 0161-8105

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Abstract

Initiating and maintaining sleep requires gating of sensory input. Sensory processing differences, such as elevated sensory reactivity, have emerged as a potential driver of sleep difficulties in autism. Both sensory and sleep difficulties are prevalent in autistic individuals and emerge early in development. Here, we use polysomnography to understand how infant sensory reactivity affects the ability to maintain sleep in a quiet or noisy environment. Forty-four 8- to 11-month-old infants at typical and elevated likelihood for autism participated in a lab-based nap study consisting of two counterbalanced visits, a baseline and an auditory stimulation condition. In the stimulation condition, 60dB pure tones were played during sleep. We measured slow waves and sleep spindles, EEG features previously linked to the ability to protect sleep from sensory disturbance. We show that higher caregiver-reported sensory reactivity was significantly associated with lower slow wave activity and density, across both nap conditions. In the stimulation condition, infants with elevated sensory reactivity had even further decreased slow wave density and lower sleep spindle density. Comparisons of pre- and post-stimulus windows showed that, rather than triggering immediate event-related disruptions, auditory input and sensory reactivity alter sleep micro-structure across the longer timescale of the entire nap. Thus, highly reactive infants experience disruptions in their ability to enter or maintain periods of sensory disconnection, accentuated by the presence of auditory noise.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability: Two EEG recordings are shared on the Open Science Framework alongside the code for automated sleep spindle detection (osf.io/3ujr4). Other data is available upon request.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	3*,sleep,eeg,infants,autism ,/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/REFrank/3_
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Dementia & Complexity in Later Life Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Mental Health and Social Care (fka Lifespan Health) Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2026 16:30
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2026 23:03
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101620
DOI:	10.1093/sleep/zsag010

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