A concussion is a type of brain injury that causes temporary loss of brain function. Concussions are common among student athletes and can affect memory, judgment, reflexes, speech, balance, and coordination. Findings from a recent study suggest that sleep deprivation mimics many of the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome.
Post-concussion syndrome is a condition in which the symptoms of concussion linger far beyond the expected recovery period, lasting months or even years after the original injury. Between 10 and 20 percent of people who experience concussion will have post-concussion syndrome.
The study was part of the NCAA-U.S. Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education Consortium, an ongoing project investigating the effects of concussion and repetitive head impact. More than 30,000 military cadets and university student athletes provided demographic data as well as information on current and previous sport participation, concussion history, and preexisting personal and medical history.
They also completed the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool–3rd Edition (SCAT3) symptom evaluation as part of baseline preseason testing. The SCAT3 is a self-reported inventory of 22 symptoms and includes questions about the number of hours of sleep obtained the night before testing.
The majority of the participants (63 percent of the men and 74 percent of the women) reported having at least one symptom, the most common of which was fatigue or low energy. A subset of the cadets (18 percent of the men and 28 percent of the women) and the university students (11 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women) reported having enough symptoms to meet the diagnostic criteria for post-concussion syndrome. A common denominator among this subset was sleep deprivation (fewer than five hours) the night before the assessment.
These findings suggest that many of the symptoms people report after a concussion are fairly common among cadets and university athletes who have not sustained a recent injury. They also highlight the need to take sleep and other environmental factors into consideration when determining whether athletes are ready to return to activity.
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