The Assessment and Characterisation of Sleep Disturbance during Post-Traumatic Amnesia following a Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Following a traumatic brain injury, sleep disturbance emerges early and whilst individuals are in a temporary and confused recovery phase, known as post-traumatic amnesia (PTA). During PTA, 80% of patients experience sleep disturbance, however, there remains limited research in this area. This thesis integrated four published manuscripts, which broadly aimed to characterise sleep disturbance, and evaluated the feasibility and accuracy of sleep assessment methods (including gold-standard polysomnography [PSG]) in patients experiencing PTA. Disturbances to sleep quality, sleep staging (i.e., reduced deep slow-wave sleep) and melatonin levels were observed during PTA. Gold-standard PSG was a more accurate sleep assessment modality when compared to Actigraphy in patients experiencing PTA. This thesis supports sleep assessment during PTA, which is currently not routinely practiced in hospital settings.