Tracing the Evolution of Sleep-Related Behavioural Outcomes Research in Autistic Children: A Scientometric Review

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent among autistic children and exhibit a complex bidirectional relationship with behavioural outcomes. To provide a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the evolution of knowledge in this field, we performed a scientometric analysis of 1745 publications (1969–2025) from Scopus and 2530 publications (1968–2025) from Web of Science Core Collection. After deduplication, 2878 publications were included in the analysis. CiteSpace was employed to perform a document co-citation analysis (DCA), identifying the most influential publications (n = 149) and major research clusters (n = 9). Combining the quantitative results of scientometric analysis with a qualitative discussion, we observed that research topics have gradually shifted from broadly discussing general sleep issues from a neurological perspective to examining the specific effects of certain sleep problems on certain behavioural outcomes and identifying some potential underlying mechanisms and possible interventions in this relationship. Also, increasing attention has been given to research on parents and to interdisciplinary integration between psychology/education and medicine/health sciences. However, there still exists a limited focus on non-Western countries and the role of daytime napping. We call for future research to adopt a cross-cultural perspective, deepen the understanding of the cognitive mechanism underlying sleep-related behavioural outcomes, and improve sleep and behavioural outcomes of autistic children through the integration of psychological, behavioural and medical approaches across individual, family, and social levels.