Case 1: Xiao Zhao is a large truck driver, strong physique, 1 meters 8 meters tall weighing 100 kg, often run long distance. But he 4 times in 2 years because of sleepy traffic accidents, the most serious one is 10:00 am rear-ended a normal truck, resulting in 2 people seriously injured rescue, he himself multiple fractures. Strangely enough, each time he could not remember how the accident happened, only that he was particularly sleepy before the accident, but was insisting on driving. Traffic police each time the treatment is fatigue driving, the family and truck owners have also paid a lot of money as a result. Xiao Zhao’s job was also lost. For this reason Xiao Zhao was particularly distressed and did not know what was wrong with him. During his unemployment at home, his family found that Xiao Zhao was snoring particularly loudly in his sleep and often woke up suffocated. The family took him to the hospital for a checkup, only to find that he suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea, with apnea and hypoventilation occurring a surprisingly high 88 times per hour. The physician said that his car accident was related to the daytime sleepiness caused by this disease and advised him to start weight loss and ventilator therapy immediately. Case 2: Mr. Wang is a multinational executive, commonly known as “gold collar”. He has a busy work schedule and is under a lot of pressure. He often travels and works overtime, and feels tired every day when he gets home. But Mr. Wang himself always feel like not sleeping in the morning after waking up or drowsy, often sleepy during the day, need to drink 3 cups of coffee every day to refresh. Home bedroom in the duplex structure on the second floor, his wife said he snored very loudly at night, closed the door in the living room downstairs can hear, and breathing intermittently very irregular. Recently Mr. Wang often sleepy during the day to drive waiting for red lights will snooze, and a few times is driving when confused, the car to the sidewalk, fortunately did not hit people. But once hit a tree, the car was sent for repair, and people suffered some minor injuries. He and his family have always thought it was due to fatigue driving because they were too tired from work. Wang tried to sleep one hour earlier every day, but the situation did not get better. Until once he mentioned it in casual conversation with a foreign colleague, who said he should come to the hospital for a checkup, and that drivers with this condition in their country needed to rule out sleep apnea. So, Mr. Wang came to the hospital, where doctors performed polysomnography monitoring, which resulted in a diagnosis of severe obstructive sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome, with up to 54.6 apneas per hour. Subsequently, on the advice of the doctor, he received positive pressure ventilation ventilator treatment while trying to lose weight. The first day he woke up after wearing the ventilator to bed, he felt that “he hadn’t slept so well for many years, and when he woke up, his mind was clear, his mood was good, and he was relaxed”. So, Mr. Wang insisted on wearing the ventilator every day when he slept very seriously. After a period of treatment, Mr. Wang felt like a new man. More importantly, he is no longer sleepy during the day, no longer has to drink coffee every day to refresh himself, and no longer happens when driving nodding off or “confused” which endangers his life and the lives of others. Case Study: Inattention, fatigue and excessive daytime drowsiness can lead to reduced alertness and slower reactions, which are the main causes of traffic accidents. In China, many traffic accidents due to napping while driving are called “fatigue driving”, but we ignore a disease that can cause poor sleep at night and sleepiness during the day – obstructive sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome. The snoring of these patients is only superficial, many of them also have apnea during sleep. Apnea is like someone choking and unable to breathe, resulting in lack of oxygen and metabolic waste carbon dioxide can not be expelled from the body, the longer you hold it, the heavier the lack of oxygen and damage to the body. The human organism has a self-protection mechanism, which wakes up from sleep through the brain so that breathing can resume to avoid more serious situations. If a person sleeps with repeated apnea, as in the two cases above, with an average of more than one apnea per minute, he sleeps very poorly throughout the night, and although he is not fully conscious, his brain waves show that his brain is repeatedly “micro-awakening” in order to resume breathing. Therefore, sleep apnea makes people wake up repeatedly at night, the quality of sleep decreases, sleep deprivation, sleep time decreases, daytime sleepiness or even serious drowsiness; the brain is repeatedly deprived of oxygen during sleep, resulting in brain function damage; and, long-term repeated lack of oxygen can lead to the occurrence of many chronic diseases, making physical function decline. All these can cause daytime sleepiness or even drowsiness, poor concentration, impaired cognitive function, decreased reaction ability, decreased judgment, and emotional instability. There are a lot of scientific studies confirming that sleep apnea causes the above problems and makes the driver’s driving ability reduced, which can easily lead to car accidents, especially fatal and malignant accidents. A foreign scholar reviewed and analyzed a series of car accidents and found that 83% of the fatalities occurred when the driver fell asleep. As early as 1988, an official U.S. study found that drowsiness was one of the causes of about half of car accidents, and 36% of fatal car accidents were also related to drowsiness. Studies by foreign scholars have shown that people with sleep apnea, even in mild cases, have a two times higher risk of driving in a traffic accident than people without the condition, and a three to five times higher risk of a serious accident with injuries. In California, when a physician finds that a patient has severe sleep apnea syndrome, the physician has the right and obligation to notify the regulatory authority to revoke their driver’s license. The problem of sleep apnea causing car accidents has been brought to the forefront of public safety. According to statistics, the United States can reduce losses from such crashes by more than $10 billion and save more than 900 lives each year. While our country is working hard to stop drunk driving, don’t overlook the fact that another killer besides alcohol – sleep apnea-induced drowsiness – is running rampant on the roads! Drowsiness is a severe loss of sensation and control or even loss of control. Therefore, the issue of increased risk of traffic accidents due to snoring and sleep apnea should be taken seriously by the whole society. For individuals and families, they should pay attention to and actively check and treat sleep apnea to prevent the problem before it happens, reduce personal and family losses, and reduce the danger to others. For the management, it should be based on science and pay full attention to the social hazards of this problem, and can reduce the loss of people’s lives and property by urging screening and requiring treatment through management means. Science tip: Sleep apnea can lead to drowsiness and reduced driving ability, increasing the risk of car accidents for drivers, especially prone to malignant traffic accidents, and should be taken seriously by the whole society. Drivers who find themselves snoring, sleeping with irregular breathing, and especially sleepy during the day, should seek early medical attention to detect potential sleep apnea and should actively receive effective treatment. Those drivers who are involved in car accidents due to snoozing or falling asleep should be promptly checked for sleep apnea to prevent more serious conditions.