Children who sustained traumatic brain injury take longer to fall asleep compared to children who sustained orthopedic injuries: actigraphy findings.

Objective

Primary: to examine objective sleep outcomes in children who sustained moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Secondary: to examine the relation of objective sleep with subjective sleep, fatigue, and injury variables.

Setting

A single tertiary brain injury unit.

Participants

Children (5-15 years) with moderate to severe TBI (n = 23) or orthopedic injury (OI; n = 13).

Design

Cohort study.Measures: Primary: objective sleep measure (actigraphy watch). Secondary: subjective sleep measure (questionnaire), fatigue questionnaire, and injury variables.

Results

On actigraphy, children with TBI had longer sleep onset latency compared to children with OI. On the sleep questionnaire, children with TBI obtained higher scores for total sleep disturbance, initiating and maintaining sleep, and excessive somnolence. On the fatigue questionnaire, greater difficulties were found for total, sleep/rest, and cognitive fatigue for the TBI group. In the TBI group, actigraphy data did not correlate with sleep questionnaire, fatigue, or injury variables.

Conclusion

Our study showed evidence of objective and subjective sleep disturbance in children with moderate to severe TBI, but these two types of sleep measures were not related. It is possible that distinct mechanisms underpin objective and subjective sleep disturbance, which may require different interventions.