EDITORIALS
Driving and obstructive sleep apnoea
Correspondence to:
Professor J Stradling, Sleep Unit, Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LJ, UK; john.stradling@orh.nhs.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Driving is a skill requiring many simultaneous cerebral activities, mainly eye-hand coordination with accurate speed and direction computations.1 This high level of activity requires full concentration, as evidenced by the higher accident rates in those who use mobile phones while driving.2 There is very good evidence that inadequate sleep is an important cause of fatigue-related driving accidents, possibly causing up to 20% of all accidents.3 Most of these sleep-related accidents are due to lifestyle issues such as driving without having had adequate sleep, and happen at times when vigilance is naturally low (eg, in the afternoon and at night).3 Furthermore, accidents are extremely expensive to society, with fatal accidents costing over £1 million.4 For nearly 20 years the part played by sleep disorders—particularly obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA)—has been recognised.5 OSA can grossly fragment sleep and produces excessive daytime sleepiness that is likely to cause the increased road traffic accident rates
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Thorax 2008 63: 566.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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