Relationships Between Sleepiness, Mood, and Neurocognitive Performance in Military Personnel

Neurocognitive computerized assessment tools (NCATs) were developed to assist military clinicians with the tracking of recovery from injury and return to full duty decisions with a recent focus on the setting of post-concussion evaluations. However, there is limited data on the impact of deployment on neurocognitive functioning, sleepiness, and mood in healthy, non-concussed Service members. Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics version 4 TBI Military (ANAM) data was obtained for a sample of active duty deployed personnel (n = 72) without recent history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). A linear regression was conducted to examine the effects of sleepiness and mood state on neurocognitive performance. The overall multivariate regression was statistically significant. Negative mood states were the most salient predictors of neurocognitive performance with higher levels of endorsement associated with lower scores. The findings support measures of negative mood state, but not sleepiness, as relevant predictors of neurocognitive performance as measured by the ANAM. These results indicate that mood needs to be considered when reviewing neurocognitive data to ensure that appropriate clinical decisions are made; in particular for return-to-duty decisions in deployed settings after concussion recovery.