Sleep apnea may be common in truckers

By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 1997-09-09

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Many commercial truck drivers who ride on crowded highways have a fatigue-causing sleep disorder, say scientists at the Sleep Research Center of Stanford University School of Medicine in the USA.

Stanford researchers found that 78 per cent of 159 commercial long-haul truck drivers in a study had the condition, an incidence rate three times greater than the general population.

The condition is called obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder that can interrupt sleep hundreds of times a night, resulting in heavy fatigue during waking hours.

"When 78 per cent of the people coming toward you on the road in 40-tonne trucks have such a disorder, you have a problem," says psychiatrist William Dement, director of the Sleep Research Centre and senior author of the study.

Reference:
Stoohs, R.A., Bingham, L., Itoi, A., Guilleminault, C., & Dement, W.C. Sleep and sleep disordered breathing in commercial long-haul truck drivers. Chest 107:1275-1283, 1995.

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