Study: Lack of Sleep Dangerous
03/18/99
Some people have a sleep disorder, called "sleep apnea,"
that causes them to awaken repeatedly, in some cases
hundreds of times during the night, leaving them feeling
tired the next day. This can cause a higher risk of auto
accidents, researchers reported today in the New England
Journal of Medicine. The research linked sleep apnea to
car crashes in Spain. With apnea, breathing is briefly
and repeatedly cut off during sleep, often causing a person
to wake up. Habitual snoring can be a symptom.
A University of Wisconsin study two years ago found that
people with undiagnosed sleep apnea were seven times more
likely to have multiple traffic accidents.
In the latest study, doctors in Spain looked at drivers
who received emergency treatment at two hospitals after
getting into accidents. About 30 percent of them were
found to have sleep apnea.
That suggests that apnea sufferers are six times more
likely to get into an accident, the researchers said.
In an accompanying editorial, Drs. Paul Suratt from the
University of Virginia Medical Center and Larry Findley
of the Sleep Disorders Center of Northern Colorado noted
that an estimated 80 percent of sleep apnea cases go
undiagnosed.
Doctors "have an important role in helping to prevent
accidents through identifying people with sleep apnea,
providing treatment and education, and reporting patients
who have had accidents to state authorities according to
applicable laws," they wrote.
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