Autism 1 –9 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions:

aut.sagepub.com While social and communication deficits are considered core characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), health-related comorbidities are often reported to be com-mon, and may be even more prevalent among youth with ASD than typically developing (TD) youth (e.g. Schieve et al., 2012; Shreck and Richdale, 2011). Two such factors, pain and sleep problems, may increase the likelihood for functional impairments and play an important role in qual-ity of life in this population (Bauman, 2010). Additionally, these variables may in fact be related to one another among youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), with pain disrupting sleep (Breau and Camfield, 2011), though no research has examined their relation in children with ASD specifically. Given the high incidenc