Stress in Autism (STREAM): A Study Protocol on the Role of Circadian Activity, Sleep Quality and Sensory Hyper-Reactivity

This proof-of-concept study protocol describes a novel approach towards investigating interrelationships between stress indices, sleep and circadian activation patterns, and sensory sensitivities in autism. We will adopt an individualised approach, collecting 17 days of data per person from 20 participants with and 20 without autism. Participants’ sleep will be tracked by using wearable EEG headbands and a sleep diary. Diurnal monitoring of heart rate and electrodermal activity via wearables will serve as proxies of stress and will be time-locked to subjective experience traces collected throughout the day. These traces quantify the experience dimensions such as stress and sensory sensitivities (e.g., sensory overload). Capturing the dynamics of subjective experience phase-locked to neural and physiological proxies between and within individuals can potentially tackle some of the most pressing issues in autism: sleep problems, sensory overload and stress, and will ultimately lead to an individualised prognostic approach to mental health in autism. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The authors were supported by a Cambridge-LMU Strategic Partnership Grant (granted to TB, VN and CFW). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Cambridge Psychology Research Ethics Committee (Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK) gave ethical approval for this work (PRE.2021.091) on 15 March 2022. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes As the paper presents a study protocol, no data is yet available for sharing.