Ben-Gurion University expert on autism spectrum disorders leads new project examining sleep in children with autism

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, January 19, 2026 – The Simons Sleep Project (SSP) is a new open-science resource for studying sleep in children with autism. Led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientist Prof. Ilan Dinstein and supported by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) and Simons Foundation International, the new data resource will accelerate research breakthroughs to help children with autism overcome sleep problems, which are very common and of high priority to families.

The new data resource and initial analyses of the data were published in Nature Neuroscience late last month.

Prof. Dinstein, of the Department of Psychology and Director of the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research, led the development of the SSP with PhD student Micha Hacohen while both were visiting scientists at SFARI, the leading private supporter of autism research worldwide and a division of the Simons Foundation in New York City.

This unique project leveraged state-of-the-art wearable and nearable devices including Dreem3 EEG headbands, multi-sensor EmbracePlus smartwatches, and Withings Sleep mats. The devices were delivered to 102 families throughout the U.S., and data was collected remotely for more than 3600 days and nights in the children’s home environment. Families who participated in the study were recruited from the Simons Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) cohort. Families were offered the opportunity to participate if they had two adolescent children (ages 10-17), one with autism and one without.

Participants used the devices for about three weeks each, enabling the scientists to gather an unprecedented amount of data about the children’s daily activity levels and sleep patterns. Most importantly, this data was gathered during daily life and represents their actual activity and sleep habits at home, rather than measuring their sleep in artificial settings such as a sleep lab.

"We found that objective sleep measures (e.g., total sleep time) from the devices were more accurate and reliable than parent reported measures” explains Prof. Dinstein “This is important, because most of the available data for sleep research in autism comes exclusively from parent questionnaires. Nevertheless, the data showed that autistic children had greater difficulties falling asleep than their siblings, and that this specific sleep problem was associated with many behavioral and psychiatric difficulties in both groups.”

"The data revealed that we should focus our attention primarily on difficulties falling asleep and specifically in the autistic children who exhibit this difficulty according to objective measures. We are now examining brain activity recordings from these specific children to study why they have difficulties falling asleep. Identifying potential causes for these sleep difficulties will enable development of interventions to ameliorate them and that is really critical for the quality of life of affected autistic individuals and their families.”

“Sleep disturbances are a frequently reported issue for those with autism, but there are still many questions around how they manifest and how to address them,” says Kelsey Martin, Executive Vice President of Autism and Neuroscience at the Simons Foundation. “We are excited to offer this resource to the research community to enable further studies that explore the links between autism and sleep.”