Healthy living
Mind matters
Too tired to drive
Even though you may feel alert and wide awake, you are at increased risk of an accident while driving if you suffer from sleep apnoea, say French scientists
A research team at the Grenoble University Hospital asked 20 people with sleep apnoea, and 20 who did not suffer from this common condition to perform a series of tests while driving on a 150m-long track, including avoiding a sudden jet of water.
The team's findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, revealed that people with the sleep disorder had slower reaction times while driving, took longer to stop and were more likely to crash.
The apnoea group's slower reactions meant they took half a second longer to stop when the water jet appeared, lengthening the vehicle's stopping distance by 8.8 m at 40 km per hour and causing twice the number of collisions with the water jet.
However, those patients who were treated for the condition and retested three months later showed significant improvement in their driving ability.
Sleep apnoea is caused by the partial or complete collapse of the airway during sleep. When the narrowing of the throat occurs to such an extent that the airway is blocked, the sufferer wakes briefly to avoid suffocation. This can become a continuous cycle that may happen hundreds of times a night. Usually the individual does not remember the episodes.
However, the knock-on effect is exhaustion which can lead to a phenomenon scientists have dubbed 'microsleep' - your body's involuntary reaction to over-fatigue. Tell-tale signs include stinging eyes, slow and frequent blinking, small pupils, yawning and shivering.
It appears it is also possible to microsleep with the eyes still open, putting your reaction times into slow motion by causing the brain to process what the eyes see very slowly or not at all.
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.