Sleep Apnea and Disability
Posted February 6, 2023 by Premier Disability Services, LLC®What is sleep apnea?
Do you snore? Are you unusually tired during the daytime and yearn to take a nap? You may have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a common medical condition and potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts while you are sleeping. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and can occur multiple times throughout the night. Symptoms include snoring loudly and feeling tired even after a full night’s sleep. Sleep apnea is often diagnosed with an over-night sleep study.
What is a sleep study?
A sleep study is a non-invasive, overnight exam that allows doctors to monitor you while you sleep to see what’s happening in your brain and body. For this test, you will go to a sleep lab that is set up for overnight stays—usually in a hospital or sleep center. While you sleep, an EEG monitors your sleep stages, to identify possible disruptions in the pattern of your sleep. A sleep study will also measure things such as eye movements, oxygen levels in your blood (through a sensor—there are no needles involved), heart and breathing rates, snoring, and body movements.
The data from your sleep study will usually be taken by a technologist, and later evaluated by your doctor. This may take up to two weeks, when you’ll schedule a follow up to discuss the results.
How can sleep apnea be disabling?
Each time an obstruction occurs, the oxygen circulating in our bloodstream decreases and triggers our brains to send out signals that wake us up. Waking up, even for a split second, is enough to clear the blockage and we fall back asleep. However, this brief interruption to our sleep also disrupts our natural sleep patterns. Due to this, we can feel unrested, tired, and sleepy the next day, because we didn’t get as good sleep the night before.
Physically, sleep apnea can increase your risk of falling or motor vehicle accidents, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, atrial fibrillation, insulin resistance, cancer, and mental decline. Having sleep apnea can make these illnesses worse, which can impact your ability to perform the physical demands of your job, such as walking, standing, and lifting and carrying tasks.
Mentally, sleep apnea can leave you too tired to pay attention to your work. Being tired can impact your relationships with your co-workers and supervisors, as well as customers or the public at large. Your ability to persist through tasks and keep pace with your co-workers may be impacted negatively. Other mental conditions you may have could be exacerbated by lack of sleep, further impacting your ability to perform work tasks. Extra breaks or extra time may be required for you to perform work tasks due to your tiredness caused by your sleep apnea, and that could impact your ability to find work in a competitive work setting.
If you are regularly tired during the daytime or suspect you may have sleep apnea, discuss with your doctor steps you can take to diagnose and treat your condition. It is a serious chronic condition and if allowed to progress, can cause serious health defects. Treatment often includes lifestyle changes, such as weight loss, and the use of a breathing assistance device at night, such as a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.
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By: Devon Brady of Premier Disability Services, LLC®
