Background and Purpose: Previous studies have shown that martial arts can be used to reduce behavioral and communication problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, few studies have been conducted about its effect on the sleep habits in in these children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of practicing kata techniques on sleep habits of boys with ASD.
Method: This study was performed by a random assignment pre-test-post-test design. For this purpose, 20 children with ASD were selected from children aged between 8 and 14 years in the charity of the Guilan Autism Association in 2018 and were randomly divided into the experimental or control group. Parents of children completed Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (Owens, 2000) before and after the 10-week intervention. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normality of the data, and analysis of covariance was used to compare the means of the groups before and after the intervention.
Results: Ten weeks of Kata techniques training had a significant effect on total score of sleep habits questionnaire and subscales of bedtime resistance (F=7.28, p<0.02), sleep duration (F=26.08, p<0.002), sleep anxiety (F=10.12, p<0.01), nighttime awakening (F=17.58, p<0.002), parasomnia (F=8.07, p<0.01) and daytime sleepiness (F=15.74, p<0.003) in children with ASD.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that martial arts can reduce inappropriate sleeping habits in children with ASD by causing hormonal, biological and biochemical changes in the body and can be added as a valuable intervention to children's daily programs to improve sleep patterns in children with ASD.