While sleep apnea might be a foreign concept to some, there are others who experience very real and very terrifying consequences in the real world. In New Jersey, a year's worth of testing on train engineers yielded some horrific results that probably should have been caught much sooner. Before we get to that, we would point out that sleep apnea testing was required in New Jersey following a September 2016 rail crash. Further investigation revealed that the engineer suffered from sleep apnea which had in fact been undiagnosed, as most sleep apnea tends to be.

A Study of 44 Train Engineers

To put this into perspective, the crash in question occurred when the Pascack Valley Line Train was making its way to Hoboken and accelerated to 21 mph. This is twice the 10 mph speed limit, and as a result, it broke through a barrier and into the station. This caused one to be killed and another 108 to be injured.

After studying the results and causes of the 2016 crash, the state of New Jersey demanded sleep apnea testing for every single engineer in their employ. As it turns out, a total of 44 train engineers suffer from sleep apnea and to be quite honest, that is an accident waiting to happen. Overall, NJ Transit performed screening for 373 engineers and out of those, 57 were taken out of service. While they were not fired, they were 'grounded' effectively until they could follow up with physicians and receive proper treatment.

Understanding Sleep Apnea

While sleep apnea is a deadly condition there are still many people who do not understand it, which is precisely why it has become such a prominent issue. So what is sleep apnea and how does it affect the average person? There are many different potential contributors to sleep apnea and it is very difficult to pick just one. Some say it is obesity while others stick to the belief that the condition is caused mostly by genetics. No matter what the underlying cause might be, in practice, sleep apnea will cause an individual's airway to close up and collapse during sleep, which means they will simply stop breathing and the situation may cause them to awaken. The problem is that they will not fully awaken, but rather rise from REM sleep to one of the first levels of sleep. That being the case, they are not going to register that they have awakened and will believe that they have slept for the entire night. This causes typical sleep apnea health issues which include loss of concentration, tiredness, and headaches, and much more.

Taking Care of the Problem

The state of New Jersey has addressed the problem in the train industry but it is also something that needs to be taken care of on a personal level. If a person suspects that they have sleep apnea it is critical that they seek out the proper treatment, even if it is inconvenient. Fortunately, the sleep apnea test cost has gone down considerably since at-home testing was introduced and it is very simple to determine whether or not the individual requires a CPAP machine. Once the testing is performed, a machine with the proper pressure settings can be issued to the individual whether they opted for testing themselves or are doing so as part of a company initiative.

The bottom line is that while sleep apnea can be a deadly condition, it is a completely preventable condition. An individual may be stuck with it for the entirety of their life, but it is definitely something that can be controlled, and an individual can live a normal life. Most importantly, proper testing ensures the safety of everyone around, and with that being the case, it is not something that anyone should put off.

VirtuOx is the leader in home sleep tests and pulse oximetry.