Previous studies have found beneficial effects of aromatherapy massage for agitation in people with
dementia, for pain relief and for poor sleep. Children with autism often have sleep difficulties, and it
was thought that aromatherapy massage might enable more rapid sleep onset, less sleep disruption
and longer sleep duration. Twelve children with autism and learning difficulties (2 girls and 10 boys
aged between 12 years 2 months to 15 years 7 months) in a residential school participated in a within
subjects repeated measures design: 3 nights when the children were given aromatherapy massage with
lavender oil were compared with 14 nights when it was not given. The children were checked every
30 min throughout the night to determine the time taken for the children to settle to sleep, the number
of awakenings and the sleep duration. One boy’s data were not analyzed owing to lengthy absence.
Repeated measures analysis revealed no differences in any of the sleep measures between the nights
when the children were given aromatherapy massage and nights when the children were not given
aromatherapy massage. The results suggest that the use of aromatherapy massage with lavender oil
has no beneficial effect on the sleep patterns of children with autism attending a residential school.
It is possible that there are greater effects in the home environment or with longer-term interventions
