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, pre-existing 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 U.S. 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. The participants were cadets from four U.S. military service academies, who undergo rigorous training and are required to participate in athletics and students who competed in NCAA sports at 26 U.S. higher education institutions. Beyond the substantial numbers of students who reported clusters of PCS-like symptoms, between one-half and three-quarters 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. “The numbers were high and were consistent with previous research in this area, but it is quite shocking,” said study lead author Jaclyn Caccese, assistant professor in The Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “These are elite athletes who are physically fit, and they are experiencing that many symptoms commonly reported following a concussion. So looking across the general population, they’d probably have even more,” Caccese added.