Commercial drivers could be understating sleep apnoea symptoms for fear of losing their licence

People who drive commercial vehicles, such as buses, taxis, trucks and aeroplanes, could be incorrectly reporting their symptoms of sleep apnoea due to their fears of endangering their employment, according to a new study.

The research will be presented on 1 September 2012 at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) Annual Congress in Vienna. All the abstracts from the ERS Congress will be publicly available online today (26 August 2012).

People with the sleep apnoea suffer frequent disruptions to their breathing during sleep, leaving them with headaches, drowsiness and sometimes depression during the day. Obstructive sleep apnoea is a well-established risk for traffic accidents and commercial vehicle drivers could lose their licence if their illness is perceived to be compromising safety while driving.

The regular treatment for sleep apnoea is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which uses a mask and other equipment to generate a stream of air to keep the upper airway open during sleep. As commercial drivers regularly do shift work, they don't follow regular patterns of sleep and also do not always sleep in one place; this makes adherence to CPAP treatment more difficult.

Researchers examined 37 commercial vehicle drivers with sleep apnoea and compared them with a control group of 74 patients. Both groups had similar characteristics of age, body mass index (BMI) and similar numbers of disturbances suffered on average during the night. Both groups also underwent treatment using CPAP.

Levels of sleepiness were then analysed using the Epworth Sleepiness Score; a well-established short questionnaire used to give levels of sleepiness during the day time. The survey provides a score, which is the sum of 8 items and can range between 0 and 24.The higher the score, the higher the person's level of daytime sleepiness

At the start of the study, commercial drivers reported an average score of 8.1 on the sleepiness scale, compared with an average of 11.0 reported by non-commercial drivers, despite a similar number of disturbances at night between the two groups. The difference was also seen after 6 months of treatment using CPAP therapy with the drivers reporting an average sleepiness score of 4.8 and non-drivers reporting an average of 7.7.

Sleep apnea signs and symptoms It can be tough to identify sleep apnea on your own, since the most prominent symptoms only occur when you’re asleep. But you can get around this difficulty by asking a bed partner to observe your sleep habits or recording yourself during sleep.

Major signs and symptoms of sleep apnea

- Loud and chronic snoring
- Choking, snorting, or gasping during sleep
- Long pauses in breathing