Conclusions
depressive, ABI, fatigue, anxiety
Sleep disturbances are common following ABI and have a negative impact on emotional well-being and cognitive functioning. The present study shows that a short CBT-I based sleep intervention produced significant improvements in sleep quality and fatigue in people with ABI in addition to rehabilitation treatment as usual. Furthermore, participants who received the sleep therapy were better able to cope with fatigue compared to the TAU only group. No significant improvements were observed regarding impact and consequences of fatigue, symptoms of physical and mental fatigue, nor in anxiety and depressive symptoms. It is also important to note that some potentially burdensome elements in the add-on sleep intervention, such as stimulus control and sleep restriction, did not increase fatigue during treatment. This study shows that psychoeducation combined with behavioural recommendations to change sleep behaviour seems to be sufficient and confirms the shortening of the regular CBT-I protocol in this ABI population. The application of this short add-on sleep intervention could be implemented in neuropsychological rehabilitation settings.