A - 28 Relationship between Sleep and Symptom Severity during Initial Post-Injury Testing in High School Athletes

Abstract Purpose Examine the relationship between reported symptom severity and hours of sleep the night before completing the ImPACT Post-Injury 1 (PI-1) Post-Concussion Symptom Checklist. Method A sample of 414 high school (ages 14–17) athletes (188 females, 226 males) who completed the PI-1 pre-test ImPACT Post-Concussion Symptom Checklist and reported hours of sleep the night before testing, from 2019 to present, was analyzed. Responses were divided into two groups, ‚â§8 hours sleep (n = 253) and ≥ 8 hours sleep (n = 246), and compared to ratings of pre-test total symptom score (TS) and 22 individual symptoms (IS) using a correlation test (Pearon’s r). A quadratic regression analysis was completed combining both sleep groups (n = 414) to assess for a curvilinear relationship between reported sleep, IS, and TSS. Results There was a statistically significant negative correlation between ‚â§8 hours sleep and 15 IS (r = −0.292 to −0.141, p = 0.001 to 0.024) and TS (r = −0.272, p = 0.001). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between ≥8 hours sleep and 10 IS (r = 0.138 to 0.261, p = 0.001 to 0.030) and TS (r = 0.193, p = 0.002). A quadratic regression analysis confirmed a statistically significant quadratic relationship between hours of sleep and TSS (coefficient for the quadratic term was 1.030, p = 0.001) and for 15 IS (all p = 0.001). Conclusions A significant U-shaped relationship was found between high school athletes’reported hours of sleep and reported symptom severity at first post-concussion assessment. This is consistent with other research indicating that too much or too little sleep can be problematic.