Sleep disorders, sleepiness and traffic safety: a public health menace

Abstract

Sleep disorders are not uncommon and have been widely reported throughout the world. They have a profound impact on industrialized 24-h societies. Consequences of these problems include impaired social and recreational activities, increased human errors, loss of productivity, and elevated risk of accidents. Conditions such as acute and chronic insomnia, sleep loss, excessive sleepiness, shift-work, jet lag, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea warrant public health attention, since residual sleepiness during the day may affect performance of daily activities such as driving a car. Benzodiazepine hypnotics and zopiclone promote sleep, both having residual effects the following day including sleepiness and reduced alertness. In contrast, the non-benzodiazepine hypnotics zolpidem and zaleplon have no significant next-day residual effects when taken as recommended. Research on the effects of wakefulness-promoting drugs on driving ability is limited. Countermeasures for excessive daytime sleepiness have a limited effect. There is a need for a social awareness program to educate the public about the potential consequences of various sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea, shift-work-related sleep loss, and excessive daytime sleepiness in order to reduce the number of sleep-related traffic accidents. Correspondence

Urban Bus Drivers’ Sleep Problems and Crash Accidents

“…But the direct effect of quality of sleep and sleep disorders on increased risk of automobile accidents is a topic under research [2][3][4][5][14][15][16][17][18]. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown the range of effects of sleep deprivation from cognitive performance to distorted patterns of cerebral metabolism and blood flow in humans.…”

“…There is an important need to increase public awareness about the potential consequences of various sleep disorders such as, sleep apnea, shift-work-related sleep loss, excessive daytime sleepiness, and it relationship to accidents in order to reduce the number of sleep-related traffic accidents [7,8,15,16,20,27,28].…”

“…The ESS is an 8-item questionnaire where each question is answered on a scale of 0 (would never dose) to 3 (high chance of dosing), yielding a total between 0 (minimum) and 24 (maximum sleepiness) which is then classified into three groups: minimum (0-8), moderate (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16), and high risk (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24).…”

Aspectos do sono e das funções neurocomportamentais em condutores profissionais de veículos pesados: revisão da literatura

“…As estatísticas mundiais de mortes nas rodovias são preocupantes, por exemplo, em 1998, mais de 1,2 milhões de pessoas em todos os continentes tiveram causa de morte por acidentes de trânsito, sendo a décima maior taxa de mortalidade no mundo 4 5 . Portanto, a fadiga é altamente prevalente nestes indivíduos sendo associadas com más condições laborais, longas horas no trafego, doença crônica e transtornos do sono 5 .…”

302. Sleep Onset Insomnia, Daytime Sleepiness and Sleep Duration in Relationship to Toxoplasma gondii IgG Seropositivity and Serointensity

“…Insomnia, which is defined as an individual's report of "difficulty falling or staying asleep" [1], is a major public health issue [2,3] exerting a negative impact on occupational functioning as reflected by missed work days, difficulty concentrating, accidents and poor work performance [4]. Assessment of insomnia in sleep surveys often relies on subjective questionnaires examining how one has problems falling asleep or maintaining sleep.…”