Causes of Truck Accidents - Sleep Apnea
Many truck drivers get into accidents because they are simply too tired. They go to sleep and spend the required number of hours not driving and yet still feel tired and fall asleep driving. What many don’t realize is that they are suffering from sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder. The disorder is characterized by pauses in breathing while the sufferer is asleep. Each pause is called an apnea privative. These episodes generally cause a person to skip one to two breaths and recur repeatedly throughout the night.
An apneic event generally includes a minimum of 10 seconds between breaths in conjunction with either a neurological arousal, blood oxygen saturation loss of 3% of greater, or both at the same time. To diagnose the condition, a person is given a polysomnogram. This test is an overnight test that really just requires the person to whom it is being administered to sleep.
In order for sleep apnea to be considered clinically significant, a person must experience a minimum of five apneas privative per hour of any type of apnea. This is measured by the polysomnogram.
There are three different, distinct forms of sleep apnea; central, obstructive, and complex. Complex is a combination of both central and obstructive. Central accounts for roughly .4% of all cases while obstructive sleep apnea accounts for the vast majority of cases at 84%. Complex accounts for 15% of all cases.
The difference between the types of sleep apnea deals mainly with how breathing is disrupted. In obstructive sleep apnea, breathing is interrupted by something physically blocking airflow, despite the effort being exerted. In central, breathing is interrupted because a person is not exhibiting an effort to breathe. In complex sleep apnea, there is a transition from central to obstructive sleep apnea during the apneic events themselves.
Regardless of what type of sleep apnea with which a person is diagnosed, the sufferer is rarely aware of having difficulty breathing, even when they are awakened by their inability to breathe. People watching an individual with sleep-apnea sleep can recognize the episodes when they occur. In addition, many can suspect that a person has the condition due to the effects on the body.
Prior to diagnosis, symptoms can be present for years or even decades. During this time, the sufferer may become conditioned to their inability to get a good night’s rest and the fatigue associated with the significant levels of sleep disturbance they’re experiencing. For more articles like this bookmark http://18wheeleraccident.net
Author: Joseph Devine
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