APSS: Police Suffer from Sleep Disorders

Ed Susman
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Suggest to patients who are policemen that they may be at risk for sleep problems and the health issues they raise.
This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed publication.

MINNEAPOLIS, June 13 -- Four out of 10 police officers may be working with sleep abnormalities, researchers here said.

A survey of 5,296 police officers in North America found that 38.8% of active-duty officers suffer from sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, or narcolepsy, researchers reported at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting.

But if sleep disorders are common, treatment was not, said Shantha Rajaratnam, Ph.D., of Harvard.

"Almost half of the 365 individuals diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in the past reported that they do not regularly take treatment," he noted. "These data confirm that sleep disorders remain largely undiagnosed and untreated."

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