Lack of sleep, stress can have same symptoms as concussion

While we all know how getting less sleep and stress can be harmful to a person’s health, a new study suggested that lack of sleep, preexisting mental health issues, and stress could also lead to symptoms that resemble concussion.

The study was published in the journal ‘Sports Medicine’. This finding supports researchers’ argument that athletes recovering from a brain injury should be assessed and treated on a highly individualised basis.

This study was conducted by the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium established by the NCAA and US Department of Defense.

In the study, between 11 per cent and 27 per cent of healthy college athletes with no history of a recent concussion reported combinations of symptoms that met the criteria for the post-concussion syndrome (PCS) as defined by an international classification system.

Among the nearly 31,000 student-athletes surveyed, three factors stood out as the most likely to predict PCS-like symptoms: lack of sleep, pre-existing mental health problems, and stress.

Between one-half and threequarters of all of the athletes surveyed reported one or more symptoms commonly experienced by people who’ve had a concussion, the most common being fatigue or low energy and drowsiness..