FamilySleeps Research Study - Maynooth University

We know that joining a research study can feel like a big step. So we want to show you exactly what it involves, piece by piece.

When your family joins FamilySleeps, a kit arrives at your door. Here is what is inside and what each piece does:

⌚ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝
A wrist-worn sensor that tracks movement and sleep patterns. It is lightweight, comfortable and worn like any other watch. We have a trial period if you are concerned your children will not like them.

🏠 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙧
A small, unobtrusive device placed in your child's bedroom. It monitors the sleep environment passively throughout the night. You do not need to do anything once it is set up. Our booklet walks you through placement when your kit arrives. If you need assistance we are also available.

🧪 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙖 𝙠𝙞𝙩
A simple saliva donation. No needles, no clinic visits. Just a spit task that your family completes at home, at a time that suits you, and posts back to us in the prepaid envelope provided.

📋 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨
Short, straightforward questions about your family's sleep and daily routines. Completed at a few key points across the year, not every day. Designed to take as little of your time as possible.

📖 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙖𝙡
Everything you need to know, written clearly and simply. Our research team is also just an email or phone call away throughout the year if you have any questions at all.

That is it. No travel. No clinic visits. No disruption to your family's daily life beyond these simple steps.

Families who have joined tell us their children are proud to be part of real science, they like the engagement material. And we are proud to have them. 💙

Ready to find out more?

🔗 https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

Right now, researchers at Maynooth University are trying to understand something that matters deeply to thousands of Irish families.

Why do so many autistic children struggle to sleep? Is the answer in their genes? And what does that mean for the whole family sleeping under the same roof?

These are not simple questions. But every family that joins FamilySleeps brings us closer to answering them.

The data your family contributes does not just sit in a database. It builds the evidence base that could one day inform how autistic children are supported, how sleep difficulties are understood and how families get the help they need.

Science moves slowly. But it moves because families like yours choose to be part of it. 💙

We are recruiting Irish families with two or more children aged 5 to 14:
✅ Where one child has an autism diagnosis
✅ With no autism diagnosis (comparison group)

Everything takes place at home. No travel needed.

🔗 Register your interest: https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

What does it mean to involve the community in research? 💙

At the Family Genomics Research Group, we believe that the people affected by a research question should have a voice in how that research is done.

That belief led us to work with a Public and Patient Involvement contributor, a parent from a neurodivergent family who joined our team not as a research subject, but as a genuine collaborator. Someone whose lived experience of autism over more than sixteen years brings something to the research that no dataset ever could.

She described it this way:

"It's really nice to know that the knowledge and perspective that you've distilled over a decade or more of thinking and learning can become useful to other people."

That is what meaningful involvement looks like. Not just ticking a box, or consulting after the decisions are already made, but a real seat at the table from the beginning.

Her insights have shaped how FamilySleeps is designed, what we ask of families, how we communicate with participants, and how we make sure the study works for real neurodivergent families in their daily lives.

We wrote about this journey on our blog and think it is worth a read, whether you are a researcher, parent, or someone who cares about how science is done.

🔗 https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/post/empowering-autism-genomics-research-volunteers-through-dynamic-public-and-patient-involvement

If reading this makes you think FamilySleeps might be right for your family, we would love to hear from you. We are recruiting Irish families with two or more children aged 5–14, with or without an autism diagnosis.

🔗 Register your interest: https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲'𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩? ☀️🌙

Here is something that might surprise you. Sunlight does not just affect your vitamin D levels, it also influences your body's internal clock, the circadian rhythm that regulates when you feel sleepy, when you wake and how rested you feel.

In a study published in Nature Communications this year, Professor Lorna Lopez from our own Family Genomics Research Group collaborated with researchers at Trinity College Dublin to analyse genetic data from over 330,000 people. They found something striking: several of the genes linked to vitamin D levels are also connected to circadian rhythms — the body's 24-hour biological clock.

This tells us that light exposure, genetics and biological timing are more deeply connected than we previously understood. And crucially, your genes influence how your body responds to sunlight, which means that two families living side by side can experience the same Irish winter very differently.

This is exactly why studying families across all seasons, not just at a single point in time, matters so much. Rhythms change. Light changes. And the story your family's biology tells in January is not the same one it tells in July.

That is what FamilySleeps is built to capture. Year-round measurement, in real Irish homes, across real seasons, so that we can understand how genetics, light, circadian rhythms and sleep interact in families over time. 🧬

Want to be part of the research?
We are recruiting Irish families with two or more children aged 5–14:
✅ Where one child has an autism diagnosis
✅ With no autism diagnosis (comparison group)

Everything takes place at home. No travel needed.
🔗 https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬? 🧬

Here at Maynooth University, we have used some of the world's most important genetic databases to begin understanding the link between sleep and autism genetics. Here are three things we can highlight from one of our studies analysing data from the UK Biobank:

1️⃣ The genes associated with autism overlap with genes that influence when you sleep and whether you struggle with insomnia.

2️⃣ People with a genetic profile linked to autism tend toward an evening chronotype. This means they can have a biological pull toward later sleep times.
This is not a simple preference or a habit. It might be driven from the genome.

3️⃣ The genetic link between neurodevelopmental conditions and sleep is not random, it runs through specific biological pathways, including ones involved in how the brain regulates its internal clock.

This tells us that the connection between autism and disrupted sleep has a biological mechanism and that understanding it could one day inform real supports for families.

We have made a start. But to go further, we need something no database can give us: real families, measured in their own homes, over time.
Do you want to help us uncover more?
Join the FamilySleeps study at Maynooth University. 💙

We are recruiting families with two or more children aged 5–14:
✅ Where one child has an autism diagnosis
✅ With no autism diagnosis (comparison group)
Everything takes place at home. No travel needed.
🔗 https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Here's a link for the source study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gbb.70011

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

Shared Genetic Links Between Sleep, Neurodevelopmental and Neuropsychiatric Conditions: A Genome‐Wide and Pathway‐Based Polygenic Score Analysis This study investigates shared genetic influences that may contribute to the circadian rhythm disruption and sleep issues in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions (NDPCs). Our findings r...

𝗣𝘀𝘀𝘁 — 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁? 🐨

When your family joins the FamilySleeps study, your children don't just wear a wristband and you fill in forms.

Every three months, they receive their very own 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗦𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗹𝗲𝘁, delivered to your door as part of your family's study pack. 📬

Inside each booklet your children will find:

🎨 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 featuring animals in their natural sleep habitats
🌟 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 - to collect across the year
🦁 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 - did you know some animals sleep standing up? Others barely sleep at all?
🐱 𝗔 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 - including our famous library cat
🔬 𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘂𝘀 - and the science your family is helping to make happen

The series is called 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗦𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 because the animal kingdom has some of the most extraordinary sleep patterns on the planet, and we think your children deserve to know about them while they help us understand sleep in families.

Participation in FamilySleeps lasts one year. The AnimalSleeps booklets are our way of making sure your children feel like the citizen scientists they truly are every step of the way. 💙

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𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝟱–𝟭𝟰:
✅ Families where one child has an autism diagnosis
✅ Families with no autism diagnosis (comparison group)

Everything takes place at home. No travel needed.

🔗 Register your interest: https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

Have you ever wondered what the FamilySleeps logo actually means? 🌀

The spiral you see in our logo represents something real, a visualisation of human circadian rhythms generated from wrist-worn activity sensor data.

Each ring is a day. The colours show levels of physical activity across 24 hours. What looks like art is actually your body's internal clock made visible. Your sleeping, your waking, and overall daily rhythm rendered in colour and shape.

We call them Sleep Spirals!

We try to use visualisations so that families and study participants can see what circadian rhythms actually look like. Because we believe that the people who contribute to research deserve to understand and see what it is measuring. Not just trust us with their data, but genuinely connect with what that data represents.

At the Family Genomics Research Group, every spiral tells a story about a real person's daily rhythms. And every family that takes part in FamilySleeps helps us read those stories better, across genetics, sleep, and autism, in real Irish homes. 💙

Family Genomics Research Group | Maynooth University
https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

This is what autism research looks like at Maynooth University. 🧬

It doesn't look like a sterile lab or a clinical waiting room.

Sometimes it looks exactly like this image here, with props, toys, conversations, and a team that genuinely enjoys meeting the communities their research is meant to be about.

Like a kit arriving at your front door. An activity watch on a child's wrist at bedtime. A sleep sensor quietly recording through the night. A family going about their normal routine, and in doing so, contributing to science that could genuinely change things.

At the Family Genomics Research Group, we are trying to answer questions that matter to real families:
🔬 Why do so many autistic children struggle to sleep; and is the answer written in their genetic code?
🕐 Why does the whole family's rhythm shift when one person's sleep is disrupted?
🧠 What do genetics, circadian rhythms and family environment have to do with each other?

These are not simple questions. And the only way to answer them properly is by working with families in their real lives, not in controlled settings that don't reflect how people actually live.

That is what FamilySleeps is built on. Not just good science, but science that respects and includes the people it is trying to help.

We are grateful to every family, advocate and community partner who has supported this work so far. 💙

Family Genomics Research Group | Maynooth University | familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie
Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

(left to right; Holly, Lorna, Mailton, Aung)

Behind the science, there are people. 👋

Every week, the FamilySleeps team sits down together to plan, discuss and push the research forward. Here's a little look at who we are.

Lorna is the brilliant mind behind FamilySleeps, Professor at Maynooth University, Principal Investigator of the Family Genomics Research Group and the driving force behind our mission to understand the genetic links between sleep, circadian rhythms and autism. Her dedication to making a real difference for families is what keeps this study moving.

Mailton is a Postdoctoral Researcher overseeing the FamilySleeps recruitment and data collection process, making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes, from how families are supported through participation to how the data is handled with care.

Holly is the friendly face behind our communications with participants, preparing the materials families receive, keeping in touch throughout the study, and making sure every family feels supported and informed every step of the way.

Aung supports the data processing side of FamilySleeps, handling the information families contribute with precision and care, and working toward the analyses that will eventually help us answer our research questions.

All of us are also working on independent research questions, using important biobank databases to advance our understanding of genetics, sleep and neurodevelopment more broadly.

We are a small team doing meaningful work and Irish families are at the heart of it. 🧬

Want to get to know what we do?
📩 Get in touch: [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998

Want to take part in FamilySleeps?
🔗 Register your interest: https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate
🔗 Learn more: https://familysleeps.github.io/PIL/index.html

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860

FamilySleeps Research Study - Maynooth University Maynooth University Research Study exploring genetic link between autism and sleep

𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬? 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐮𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭. 🧬😴

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧? No, and this is really important. With FamilySleeps, we aim to measure sleep as it occurs naturally and we want to capture your family's genuine sleep patterns. We are aware that many families use melatonin to help their child sleep and we understand that fully, as we see families trying their best to support their children.

𝐃𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬? No, and again this is an important one. FamilySleeps is recruiting two groups of families. For the families that have autism diagnosis, we are looking for a configuration where one child has an autism diagnosis added to a sibling that don't have a diagnosis. In the case of the comparison family, we are seeking families where no child has a diagnosis. This comparison group is just as essential to the research. So if autism is not part of your family story, you are still very welcome and your participation matters enormously.

𝐃𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥? Not at all. Everything takes place in your own home. The study kit, including the activity watches, sleep sensor, saliva kit and participant manual, is delivered directly to your door. Our research team supports you remotely throughout. No clinic visits, no travel, no disruption to your family routine beyond the study activities themselves - which are designed to be minimal.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞? Families take part over one year, but the active measurement periods are just a few days at a time, when the whole family wears the activity sensors together and answer questionnaires. It is designed to fit around real family life with minimal disruption.

𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬? 𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮 📩 [email protected] | 📞 086 164 5998 🔗 Register your interest: https://www.familygenomics.maynoothuniversity.ie/participate

Ethics Ref: BSRESC-2025-40860