Sleep apnea is one of the more than 80 different sleep disorders that can be life-threatening if left untreated. ‘Apnea’ is Ancient Greek meaning ‘without breath’, which is at the heart of why this sleep disorder is so deadly. It’s a sleep disorder that affects around 4% of the general population but affects as much as 35% of truckers, but before diving into the details, let’s get some facts straight and dispel a few myths in the process:
Types of Sleep Apnea: there are actually three types of sleep apnea:
- Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) – occurs when your brain doesn’t send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) – occurs when your throat muscles and mouth palate relax and collapse during sleep blocking the airway
- Complex Sleep Apnea Syndrome (CSAS) – occurs when someone has both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea
Accident Risk
For truckers, the most common form of sleep apnea is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which impacts their ability to obtain restorative sleep and remain vigilant behind the wheel. When breathing is constantly interrupted during sleep as the upper airway is periodically blocked for five to ten seconds at a time, the brain is starved of oxygen leading to hypertension and heart disease. OSA also causes sleep to become fragmented resulting in the inability to obtain both deep sleep (which repairs the physical aspects of fatigue) and dream sleep (also known as REM sleep which repairs mental fatigue and deals with mood, memory, and emotion).
Truckers who have OSA may be in bed for up to ten hours but actually, get very little good quality sleep due to the constant interruption to breathing. The combination of sleep fragmentation and interrupted breathing leads to higher levels of drowsiness dramatically increasing the risk of accidents by as much as 250% compared to well-rested drivers.
Symptoms
You may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly, gasp for air during sleep or feel exhausted even after a full night’s sleep. Other symptoms include:
- high blood pressure
- diabetes
- morning headaches
- difficulty staying asleep
- excessive daytime sleepiness
- attention problems
- irritability
- poor memory
- depression
- self-medication dependency (to deal with headaches and help fall asleep)
More severe symptoms include heart attacks and strokes.
Treatments
In most cases, sleep disorders can be easily managed once they are properly diagnosed, so please see a doctor if you continue to have trouble sleeping or are consistently find yourself feeling tired or not well-rested despite spending enough time in bed. Treatments include:
- Tennis Balls: Snoring is a form of sleep disorder caused by disrupted breathing, which is why lying on your side helps and that’s where the tennis ball comes in. If sown onto the back of clothing you wear to bed it will stop you lying on your back.
- Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD): are custom dentist-designed mouth guards help keep your bottom jaw out and up allowing your throat to open and breathing to remain normal during sleep – great for mild OSA.
- Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP): If you have moderate to severe sleep apnea, you may benefit from a CPAP machine that delivers air pressure through a mask placed over your nose and/or mouth while you sleep. With CPAP the air pressure is just enough to keep your upper airway open, preventing apnea and snoring.
- Surgery: is also an option but is usually only an option after other treatments have failed. Generally, at least a three-month trial of other treatment options is suggested before considering surgery.
- Implants: also known as “sleep apnea pacemakers” are surgically implanted devices in the chest, which detect when breathing slows stimulating the nerve that controls the tongue, moving it up and forward to open the throat.
- Weight Loss: is the most effective long-term treatment for sleep apnea. We tend to put weight on from the bottom up eventually leading to fatty deposits around the neck and throat, which adds weight around the neck area.
- when we lose weight we tend to lose it from the top down and as soon as the weight falls off the face, neck and throat area the upper airway remains more open leading to better sleep quality and ultimately better decisions about nutrition and exercise.
DoT Physicals and Body Mass Index (BMI)
There is a statistical correlation between your neck size and/or your BMI (height divided by weight squared), and the risk of having OSA. This is why the current Department of Transport (DoT) commercial vehicle driver physical requires a physician to take these measurements. If your neck size is greater than seventeen inches for men and sixteen inches for women or your BMI is 30 or greater, you may need to have a sleep study to see if you have a sleep disorder. In severe cases, you may even be placed out-of-service or issued a restricted license until such time as your physician considers you healthy enough to drive a commercial vehicle.
Dr. Stop the BS
Neck measurements are not required nor regulatory for a DOT exam. It is taught as guidance. This guidance is a recommendation from a medical review board, not FMCSA.
In my opinion, if sleep testing is to become required of any driver, all driver’s should be required to test. I have seen it just as much in tall, thin driver’s. If they do that then they might as well go after nicotine and caffeine use. This doesn’t allow the brain to go into deep sleep as well. Which do you think is the bigger problem? They all cause heart issues just the same. One just provides a profit maker for the DOT doctors that own sleep clinics as well. Who do you think authored this crap? Good luck truckers!
Fuck you
If the OTR Companies would stop changing a drivers sleep pattern things would be fine the government need to regulate some of these warehouses about there appointment teams period fuck truck driving I hate this industry.
Oleg Vishnevskiy
I see another things much deeply than many of others people. The US Government became much powerful they take control over The Freedom Americans. The HUGE money needs to keep control of powerful. I was born in USSR in 1967, and my father was born in USSR in 1924. The Ukraine was occupied by Soviets regime in that time. The Soviets regime was Government are SUCKING HUGE money to be powerful.
I am living in US since 1998. I was refugee from Communist regime. My grandfather was persecuted for his beliefs by KGB my grandfather was a FREE MAN he was disagree with Communist regime. My father was taken by the Nazis to Concentration Camp in Austria but he was survived. I LOVE to be THE FREDOM!!! But I see how we loose freedom so quickly.
The ELD, the test of Sleep Apnea, and much more these are the methods in the US enforced by Law to rob people. And to keep obey the Law the US Government needs more money to employ the Enforcement Services.
Draw your own conclusion, are you free Americans or slaves of the regime
Mike
This sleep apnea is a scam, follow the money on this one. A little research will show how this suddenly found itself in our industry, a captive audience so to speak. And that was the plan when a venture capitalist and a marketing agency put their heads together to help a struggling CPAP machine manufacturer the VC had in his portfolio. They were clever, and wormed their way into the FMSCA, the rest is history.
Dan
Why don’t you talk about all the fourwheelers that cause deadly wreaks. I’m sure that number is higher than sleep apnea could ever be.
Steven Graham
I think sleep apina is just a big money making skem i have been on mine for four years now and hasnt changed a thing its got something to do with the stock market and the way they figure the bmi is wrong to get a true bmi u have to be weighed in water and your neck doesnt have enything to do with it just a nuther way to suck the money out of your pocket.
Sophie
The only thing this law would accomplish is putting a lot of drivers out of work if they can’t pass the testing for sleep apnea. I worked for a company that did DOT physicals, I have seen to many drivers forced to quit driving because a Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant or doctor who spent 5 minutes with the driver told them that they didn’t pass their physical and therefore they can’t drive. If sleep apnea testing is required for professional truck drivers (CDL) then it should be required for any all license, it’s not only truckers who have this problem.
Putting extra stress on them with the ELD crap doesn’t help!!!
Be safe and have a great new year, hopefully it’ll be better for truckers than last year, my husband is out sometimes for 2 months, I know we could use a better year.
Mike
Spot on, I just went through this. You are allowed a second opinion, and a letter from my primary care doctor put an end to the scam Concentra was trying to pull on me. They gave me a 3 month card and handed me a few sheets of paper on the “Authorized” clinics and CPAP machine providers. Oh I was PO!d… I called OOIDA, they gave me the low down. I called my primary care physician and told him what was up, he laughed, asked me if I have trouble sleeping? I don’t, and he knows that, as it has never been a concern to either of us. He wrote a letter, stating I am fine and no sleep study is warranted. I went to a second DOT doctor that was not affiliated with Concentra, told him what was up, he gave me my physical and a two year card. End of story.
Folks, you do have rights, and these sleep studies and sleep apnea BS is not part of the rules that are required to be physically fit and able to drive a truck or any commercial vehicle. The one exception is when your employer requests that you take the sleep study, they are the only ones that can request such testing be done. Do not fall for these DOT quacks BS. There is nothing in the law that states any of this is a requirement to hold a commercial drivers license or a valid medical card. Don’t be a victim! Know your rights!
James Weed
Exactly. Just another scheme to rip off the easiest industry to scam for money. Yeah truck drivers are going to have sleep disorders due to ignorant hos rules with no consideration of circadian rhythms. What is wrong with 12 and 12 and working and driving that schedule? Until appointments are made by the driver and driving is left to the person in the cab instead of the person or people behind a screen it will never get better just more and more ludicrous.
Oleg Vishnevskiy
Driver you are absolutely right. It is HUGE money.
Guriqbal Bhullar
More like, telling drivers when to drive, when to eat, when to sleep, when to piss, when to take a break, causes driver to stress and driver fatigue.
ELD
Oleg Vishnevskiy
Driver I am absolutely agree with you. I am driving OTR since 2000.
I longingly remember the times of paper logs, I slept at night, and I gave myself to sleep also during the day any time I want.
Noble1
YOU NAILED IT !
That’s the problem in the trucking industry : “brain is starved of oxygen ” , LOL !
I guarantee it’s not just those behind the wheel !
LOL in regards to sewing “tennis balls ” on the back of a “top” ! What if one doesn’t wear a top in bed ?
Quote:
“Truck drivers are 11x more likely to suffer from sleep apnea than the general population”
Trucking really kills doesn’t it .
Quote :
What Every Trucking Student Needs to Know About Sleep Apnea
July 17, 2017
Due to recent legal issues, some truck driving companies may begin to increase their regulations for sleep apnea. Various carriers throughout the country may begin requiring truck drivers to participate in sleep apnea screening in the near future.”
Quote : What Every Trucking Student Needs to Know : DON’T BECOME A TRUCK DRIVER ! THIS INDUSTRY IS RETARDED !
You’re going to live a dog’s life ! You’re going to run behind cars all day , pee on your tires , and sleep(if you can) in the dog house called a berth .
You’re going to work 100 hours a week , log 70 and get paid for 50 ! LOL !
In my humble opinion …………
Sophie
This couldn’t be more perfectly stated. Truck driving has become a government job without the pay, benefits or say in anything you do.
My husband has been an OTR driver for 25 years, no tickets or accidents and still gets treated like crap. Companies don’t care about drivers, there care about how much money they make by screwing the people that keep them in business. I think if the government wants to control the industry and make it impossible for the drivers to make a decent income, every one of them (and every person in the government) need to be put in a truck for a week and see what truckers go through everyday to keep this country going, they wouldn’t last a day!
Instead of worrying so much about this crap they should be passing laws to prevent companies from closing and turning off drivers fuel cards leaving them stranded but still expecting them to deliver the load they have knowing that they are not going to be paid.
Trucking was a great profession before the government got so involved, lawyers became even bigger liers to get clients millions of dollars for accidents that they caused and people decided that trying to cut off, brake check and drive like idiots around trucks was funny. It’s not so funny when someone ends up dead!
To all of the truckers and their families, please have a SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
GLENNSIERS
More BS disease of the day to make money off truckers. Tell you what pass a regulation that trucking companies have to pay for the cpap machine if it is so important.
Robert
This is all just a bunch of made up bullcrap put out by the far left lead ATA. It’s just one more example how they are trying to destroy our country while lining their pockets and bank accounts full of cash