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Public Health Issues
Last edited |
10/22/2008
Written by Maurice M. Ohayon, MD, DSc, PhD
It is estimated that
sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and sleepiness added $16 billion to the U.S.
national health care bill in the early 1990’s
Other societal costs never have been calculated, but are considered to
be substantial. Indeed, excessive daytime sleepiness may lead to a decrease in
school and work productivity.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board,
sleepiness is
considered to be responsible of about one third of accidents with truck drivers.
Daytime sleepiness has received little attention from epidemiologists
though its consequences can be severe: sleepiness is involved in approximately
16% of motor vehicle accidents in England.
Moreover, it
has been suggested that half the work-related accidents and a quarter of
household accidents are caused by sleepiness.
Several clinical
studies have also pointed out the high occurrence of subjective daytime sleepiness in association with mental disorders, organic disorders and
both.
This high comorbidity may hide a more complex problem relying in the
definition of the concept.
Unlike insomnia symptoms, daytime sleepiness is generally not
gender-related.
Absence of consistent definitions of excessive daytime sleepiness brings an
unacceptable variability for proper prevalence related to age.
Some of epidemiological
surveys have also confirmed that excessive daytime sleepiness can be the primary symptom of idiopathic hypersomnia
or narcolepsy. These two disorders registered prevalence rates of only 0.026% to
0.04% in the samples studied.
Insomnia, as a cause of excessive daytime sleepiness has been rarely
investigated in the general population.
Content of this page is extracted
from Ohayon MM, Guilleminault C.
Epidemiology of sleep disorders. In:
Chokroverty S, Ed. Sleep Disorders Medicine Basic Science, Technical
Considerations and Clinical Aspects. Second Edition. Washington: Butterworth
Heinemann. 1998:301-16.
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