Bright Light Therapy for Treatment of Sleep Problems Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Condition: Concussion, Mild; Post-Concussion Symptoms; Sleep Problems
MeSH terms: Brain Injuries; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; Brain Concussion; Dyssomnias; Parasomnias; Sleep Wake Disorders; Post-Concussion Syndrome
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of the research study is to understand the effectiveness of a six-week course of
      light exposure on cognitive functioning, mood, activity, and sleep in people that have
      suffered a head injury leading to a concussion.
    

Detailed description: 
      Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) or "concussions" are an increasingly prevalent injury in
      the investigators society. Patients with post-concussion syndrome have been shown to have
      deficits on tests of short term memory, divided attention, multi-tasking, information
      processing speed, and reaction time, as well as alteration in mood and emotional functioning.
      Many patients have other vague complaints including fatigue, dizziness, irritability, sleep
      disturbances, and chronic headaches. Furthermore, sleep disruption of one of the most common
      complaints in patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries, with as many as 40 to 65% of
      patients with mTBI complaining of insomnia. Sleep problems in these patients are associated
      with poorer outcome, while resolution of the sleep disturbance is associated with improvement
      in cognitive functioning.

      Despite recent evidence of the correlation between sleep quality and recovery from traumatic
      brain injury, and the well-established role of sleep in neural plasticity and neurogenesis,
      there have been virtually no direct studies of the causal effects of sleep on recovery
      following mTBI. However, it is quite likely that sleep plays a critical role in recovery
      following brain injury.

      A particularly promising non-pharmacologic approach that shows potential in
      improving/modifying abnormalities of the circadian rhythm and sleep-wake schedule is bright
      light therapy. For the proposed investigation, the investigators hypothesize that bright
      light therapy may be helpful in improving the sleep of patients with a recent history of mTBI
      and may also have other mood elevating effects, both of which should promote positive
      treatment outcome in these individuals. Bright light therapy may increase the likelihood that
      they will recover more quickly, benefit more extensively from other forms of therapy, and
      build emotional and cognitive resilience.

      This study will also have a healthy control (HC)/effect localization arm that will assist in
      identifying and mapping the brain systems before and after light exposure so that researchers
      may develop further insights into the relationship between concussion, light exposure, sleep,
      and brain function. This healthy control arm will also provide brain targets for study in the
      analysis of the Main Study Arm.
    

Intervention name(s): mTBI wavelength-1 bright light; mTBI wavelength-2 bright light; HC wavelength-1 bright light; HC wavelength-2 bright light
Intervention type(s): Device; Device; Device; Device
Intervention description(s): 6 weeks of daily light exposure, 30 minutes per morning; 6 weeks of daily light exposure, 30 minutes per morning; 30 minutes of light exposure; 30 minutes of light exposure
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Mild traumatic brain injury; Concussion; Sleep problems; Brain imaging; fMRI