When a person suffers from a traumatic brain injury, the trauma can affect regular brain functions. The amount of problems that can arise from a brain injury depends on the severity of the damage. For example, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) explained that patients with a mild traumatic brain injury can have a brief loss of consciousness, confusion and problems with cognitive functions, such as thinking, memory and attention. Patients can also have headaches, dizziness, mood changes, lightheadedness and fatigue. Other symptoms include ringing in the ears, blurred vision and a bad taste in the mouth.
With moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries, patients have the same symptoms as with a mild traumatic brain injury, though the severity and duration of the symptoms can increase. For example, patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries can have a worsening headache. The cognition problems can become more debilitating, requiring patients to undergo neuropsychological rehabilitation. Patients can also have agitation, repeated vomiting, seizures and pupil dilation. When moderate to severe traumatic brain injury patients fall asleep, they can have problems waking up. Other symptoms include slurred speech, weakness and a loss of coordination.
But a traumatic brain injury can also lead to sleeping problems in patients. In a new study published in Neurology, researchers found that traumatic brain injuries can disrupt melatonin production, a hormone linked to sleep. The study included 23 people with severe traumatic brain injuries and 23 healthy people. All the participants were the same age, and the researchers observed them for two nights in a sleep laboratory. The researchers discovered that the levels of melatonin went up in healthy patients in the evening.
As a result, patients with traumatic brain injuries slept for 82 percent of the night, compared to 90 percent of the night for the healthy participants, according to HealthDay News. When the participants were falling asleep, the traumatic brain injury patients took more than an hour to get to sleep, while the healthy participants took an average of 27 minutes to fall asleep. But the amount of time asleep was not the only difference noted during the study. The researchers pointed out that traumatic brain injury patients also spent less time in deep sleep.
Even after taking into consideration the higher rates of anxiety and depression in traumatic brain injury patients, the researchers found that there were still differences in sleep. This study opens more opportunities to research sleep and traumatic brain injury. For example, one author points out that future studies can look into how melatonin supplements can help traumatic brain injury patients sleep.