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In Weeks After Concussion, Athletes Show Enhanced Sleep on EEG
Athletes who experienced a sports-related concussion and underwent sleep studies slept better than the population norm in both the acute and subacute phases of their injury, according to a small study published in Nature and Science of Sleep.
“These results were not in accordance with our hypothesis that sleep would be impaired compared to normative data values,” wrote corresponding author David J. Stevens, PhD, of Flinders University in Australia, and coauthors. “There was also an improvement in sleep, from the acute to subacute phase of sports-related concussion.”
The exploratory, pilot study included three athletes monitored during sleep by electroencephalography (EEG) within 7 days of experiencing a concussion, a period considered the acute phase of injury, as well as 8 weeks after the concussion, or the subacute phase of injury.
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Compared to population normative values, participants had longer total sleep time and fewer arousals in both the acute and subacute phases of concussion, according to the study. Specifically, rapid eye movement sleep latency was longer in the acute phase, while the subacute phase featured more deep sleep, greater sleep efficiency, shorter sleep onset latency, and reduced wake after sleep onset.
Participants also demonstrated improvements in sleep between the acute and subacute phases of injury. Researchers reported gains in sleep efficiency, reduced wake after sleep onset, and reduced latencies for both deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.
“We speculate that the improvement in sleep was an attempt by the brain to heal itself,” said Dr Stevens. “More research in a larger population is needed to explore this hypothesis, and investigate other neurophysiological and neurocognitive measures to examine whether changes in sleep during recovery from concussion results in changes to other aspects of the head trauma.”
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