Let me tell you a story about sleep deprivation and truckers; A few years ago, I worked for a Telecoms provider in South Wales, and one of my workmates had recently given up working as a trucker. He’d regularly driven from Italy to Wales, sometimes 18-hour journeys or more. He looked like the classic high-risk case for sleep disorders.
He clearly didn’t enjoy his job, and did say he really liked the freedom of being a driver. When I asked him why he’d given up, he told a story about driving home from Italy, desperately exhausted, trying to stay awake and unsure if he could make it all the way to Swansea. As he crossed England, he told himself he’d just make it to Wales, cross the Severn Bridge (a toll bridge that links the two countries) and then decide if he needed to pull over in a lay-by and stop.
‘Keep going until you get to the Severn Bridge, stay awake till the Severn Bridge’ he kept repeating to himself.
And then he found himself at home, in Swansea. He checked in his pocket and found a ticket and a receipt from the toll both which showed he must have actually had a conversation with the person who gave it to him. He had no memory of the conversation, the ticket, or the bridge itself, which was the one thing he’d been thinking about.
Safe to say, from that day on, I understood that sleep deprivation and truck drivers was a major issue. The profession is at high risk, when you consider that truck drivers are likely to be physically inactive for long periods of time, and to work unusual hours, with the attendant risks of insomnia and obesity. Drowsiness on the roads is also one of the most common causes of traffic accidents.
This is why it’s such a good sign that the American Sleep Apnea Association is putting on a conference in Baltimore, specifically devoted to Sleep Apnea and trucking, and that by all accounts there is keen interest in the industry.
If you’re in a profession that requires you drive for long periods, don’t you think it’s time you got hold of some facts?
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