Sleep Apnea, The Silent Killer For Truckers
As a trucker are you getting enough sleep? Is your rig outfitted with blackout curtains and a comfortable mattress so you can get the rest you need? You may be thinking that you do get about 8 hours of sleep of night, but still, wake up feeling tired and groggy.
That’s because if you’re affected by sleep apnea then you may not even know you have it. Unless you record yourself sleeping or someone tells you that you snore extremely loudly this condition could go completely missed.
You might wake up coughing, irritated, with headaches, and worst of off exhausted. This is a problem because sleep apnea is filling our nation’s highways with danger because driving tired is the equivalent of driving drunk. So, please help truckers spread awareness about his condition by taking a moment to learn about sleep apnea today.
The Dangers Of Sleep Apnea In Truckers
First of all, driving tired is dangerous because it can slow down your reaction time, impair your judgment, and affect your vision. It can also make it more difficult to process information and decrease your short-term memory. When you drive tired your performance is greatly decreased while mood swings and aggression can be increased, leading to higher rates of road rage. However, at the end of the day driving tired simply leads to more wrecks and fatalities.
You may think you aren’t at risk for sleep apnea because it’s more common among larger truckers, but the unhealthy lifestyle can make you gain weight without noticing and lead to conditions like sleep apnea. It can also affect smaller people for reasons such as an airway obstruction or due to having constricted airways.
If you have sleep apnea it’s important to get screened because it can lead to even more dangerous conditions aside from driving tired. Conditions that sleep apnea can lead to include heart disease and an increased risk of a heart attack, type 2 diabetes, weight gain, high blood pressure, acid reflux, asthma, and more.
Now a few of these conditions like high blood pressure, weight gain, and heart disease can be caused by the sedentary trucker lifestyle already and made worse by sleep apnea, so getting tested for the condition the sooner the better so you can get your life back.
Those who have been screened and started their treatments rejoice in the fact that not only do they have their lives back, but their quality of life is greatly improved. Treatments may include working out and living a healthier lifestyle, surgery, and getting a CPAP machine.
If you aren’t sure that you need to be tested check out Aeroflow’s sleep apnea screening questionnaire. All you have to do is honestly answer the questions and submit the form and they will assess your sleep apnea risk for you, for free. Then you can take further actions based on the results.
Catch Sleep Apnea, Save Lives
If you feel constantly exhausted then maybe it’s time to see your risk for sleep apnea. Trucking is currently the most dangerous profession, so we need to eliminate driving tired to make our roads safer and to get more truckers home with their lives.
If you have anything to add about sleep apnea please share it with us in the comment section below and for more trucking blogs please visit TruckLogics.com.
