Misperception of sleep duration in mild traumatic brain injury/concussion: a preliminary report

Background: Polysomnographic (PSG) findings of persons with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)/concussion show longer total sleep time than patients themselves report; the reason for this is not entirely clear. Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the socio-demographic, brain-injury-related, and clinical characteristics that underlie accuracy of sleep duration reporting in mTBI/concussion. Methods: Thirty-seven participants diagnosed with mTBI/concussion (57% male, 47.54 +/- 11.3 years old) underwent clinical and neuroimaging examinations, full-night PSG, and estimated sleep duration following PSG. Results: Mean self-reported sleep duration was 342 +/- 93.6 minutes and PSG-measured sleep duration was 382 +/- 76.8 minutes. Measurements were moderately correlated (rho = 0.46, p = .004). Age associated with self- and PSG-measured sleep duration (rho = 0.34 and rho = 0.84, respectively, p < .05). Self-reported sleep duration was uniquely associated with insomnia severity (rho = -0.48, p = .002). In the fully adjusted multivariable regression analysis, several clinical characteristics of patients explained 30% of the discrepancy between self- and PSG-measured sleep duration. Conclusion: The observed results indicate that persons with mTBI do not accurately assess their sleep duration and, therefore, PSG is warranted in clinical situations where sleep duration is of concern.