Posted on 11/22/2016 2:13:50 AM PST by SMGFan
Federal regulators are warning railroad agencies nationwide to watch out for sleep apnea in train engineers. It comes after learning last week that the engineer in the fatal Hoboken train crash has the condition. The Federal Railroad Administration says it will issue a safety advisory this week for all railroads to screen and treat workers with sleep apnea.
(Excerpt) Read more at newjersey.news12.com ...
I crashed a minivan into someone’s yard before I was fully diagnosed and treated.
Given our current disability mania, I am confident this will become another “protected class” of employees.
Don’t you have to be asleep in order to experience apnea?
My husband has it and, before CPAP, would drop off at the drop of a hat and never know it.
Most people have warning signs that they are becoming sleepy, he was so sleep deprived that he would not have any warning signals.
Thank goodness he never did that while driving.
maybe they mean narcolipsy (not sure i spelled correctly) where you can fall asleep unexpectedly?
what do you m san your husband would “drop off”?
fall asleep fro a period of time?
Because the times were so short he was not aware it was happening.
That and his stopping breathing at night was what made me drag him to the doctor kicking and screaming.
Sleep test confirmed he was stopping breathing 38 times an hour.
Every time that happens you come "awake" to start breathing again so you never go fully asleep. You live in a fog of constant sleep deprivation and your body tries to adjust by sending you into a micro nap when ever the demand becomes to great.
Probably a good idea. I knew a guy who had it, and before he was treated, he would fall asleep within 10 seconds of sitting down. Not kidding.
I’ve been diagnosed (after a full night “Sleep Study”) with sleep apnea. While I had none of the obvious symptoms listed on their questionnaire before treatment, after they put me on the CPAP machine, I had most of the symptoms.
I tried it several times for a week at a time. They adjusted the programming & even gave me the “smart” CPAP machine.
I finally told them that “Who needs waterboarding? Just put the prisoner on this CPAP and he’ll talk after a week!”
(BTW, my problem is not the mask - I’ve flown using an oxygen mask with no problems at all.)
Your humidity was set too high.
In the mean time I looked it up. it said with Sleep apnea it cold cause a person to be awake but unresponsive to what was going on around them for time length you mentioned, because elf the poor quality of sleep at night.
Earlier this year I was under much stress not sleeping well and would jolt awake at night literally sit right up some times, sometimes it wasn’t so severe but when i woke suddenly I’d wonder if I had not been breathing and “my internal back up generator” kicked in and startled me awake. (thank God!) It really messed me up for daytime and being alert. Dr even did cardiac exam to be sure it wasn’t heart.
Glad your husband got checked out and taking care of himself :)
I was able to resolve some of the stress, eat better and restructure my hours before sleep to help me get better sleep.
I am having trouble myself because of a cough that does not seem to want to go away.
I get up, have a cup of hot tea with honey and can go back to sleep for a couple of hours.
It is really messing me up.
Sleep, until you chronically are missing it you have no idea how precious it is.
I also had sleep apnea for several years. I remember my sleep
test-the person in charge of the sleep room diagnosed it shortly after I fell asleep. She put me on a CPAP and I had
the best six hours of sleep in many years. I have been on a CPAP for about ten years-it saved my life.
The only regret I have: I can no longer blame apnea for falling asleep during boring committee meetings.
Sure you can. Just tell them the drone of the speaker's voice sounds exactly like your CPAP and it triggers you to go to sleep. :)
Brilliant answer. LOL!!
Harmless: Are you by any means on medication for high blood pressure? I ask because I had an annoying cough that started all of a sudden. Turns out the blood pressure medicine was doing it. I switch medicine and it went away. Good luck
Technically speaking, people with sleep apnea never really achieve restorative sleep.
Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They may occur 30 times or more an hour. Sleep apnea is typically associated with loud snoring or choking sounds. Not everyone who snores as sleep apnea, but everyone who has sleep apnea snores and/or makes "choking" noises while they sleep.
In my case, I was diagnosed after mentally blacking out (but appearing physically awake and functional) while driving my son and family to a college visit 18 months ago now. I mentally "blacked out" for some 20 minutes while driving, yet carried on a conversation with my then wife at the time and appeared awake.
I suddenly "came to" and asked when we passed a specific point on our trip, to which the wife (at the time..) said "twenty minutes ago." Realizing I'd experienced a mental lapse, I pulled over and we changed drivers immediately.
A week later I was having a sleep study performed and learned I woke up 84 times an hour while choking. I saw the video of it too. It was pretty horrific. I had no idea. Technically speaking, I never really "slept."
Been on a cpap machine for the last @18 months now and I feel better, better mental concentration and I eat alot less and lost a pretty good chunk of weight. One of the common side effects of sleep apnea is weight gain. People with sleep apnea tend to eat 30% more calories/day than people without it due to trying to keep energy levels up during the day and being "too tired" to exercise. I've lost 35 pounds.
(Highway 3 across Iowa should be avoided by people with sleep disorders. From Edgewood to Le Mars, it is the highway equivalent of chloroform.)
Mr. niteowl77
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