Your driving license doesn’t last forever but if you have this disease you can say goodbye to it sooner than expected. This is obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, one of the worst pathologies when driving a car.
What is obstructive sleep apnea?
There are different levels of the pathology: apnea occurs when the interruption of breathing lasts from 10 seconds to less than 3 minutes; hypopnea occurs when there is a partial reduction in breathing; RERA (Respiratory Effort Related Arousal) occurs when there is limitation of breathing with a progressive increase in respiratory effort followed by a sudden release. The disorder affects men more frequently than women and is more common in women after menopause.
What causes obstructive sleep apnea?
Some conditions favor the onset of sleep apnea:
obesity/overweightobstruction of the upper airways (nose, mouth, throat)abuse of alcoholic beverages before going to sleeptaking sleeping pills
What are the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea?
Those who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea snore very evidently from the first stages of sleep (the snoring gradually becomes louder until the subject stops breathing for a few seconds, and then suddenly starts breathing again and gives rise to a new cycle that repeats itself, identical). There are several symptoms linked to this disorder:
excessive daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, headache and/or dry mouth upon waking, night sweats, sudden awakenings with a feeling of suffocation, need to urinate at night, impotence
How to prevent obstructive sleep apnea?
To prevent the onset of obstructive sleep apnea it is advisable:
lose weight if you are overweight or obese; eat healthily and do constant physical activity, even moderate; avoid smoking; avoid alcohol, especially before going to sleep.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, characterized by pauses in breathing during night rest due to total or partial obstruction of the airways, can cause our attention during the day. For this reason, the driving license is often denied to those who suffer from it, or is renewed for shorter periods than expected (for example with a validity of three years).
Other pathologies that lead to the withdrawal of the driving licence
But obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is not the only pathology that leads doctors to deny the renewal of the license. In fact, this can also happen if a person suffers from certain neurological diseases, but also cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus or epilepsy.
In any case, the judge is always the doctor or the Local Medical Commission, who will evaluate on a case-by-case basis what to do regarding the renewal of the driving licence.