Syracuse (JAMA/WSYR-TV) - How well did you sleep last night? If you routinely have trouble falling or staying asleep, you’re in good company. Sleep disorders affect millions of people in the United States. As a matter of fact, a new study finds that police officers have a very high rate of sleep problems.
Researchers screened 5,000 police officers in the United States and Canada.
Doctor Charles A. Czeisler with Bringham and Women’s Hospital says, “Forty percent of police officers in North America screened positive for a sleep disorder and that’s really quite an astonishingly high number.”
“The most common sleep disorder that we found was obstructive sleep-apnea, which affected on average one out of three police officers across the nation,” Dr. Czeisler continued.
Police officers who had a sleep disorder were also at a higher risk for depression, anxiety and diabetes. It also affected their job performance, according to the survey. With their lives on the line every day, police can ill afford attention lapses and mistakes.
Researchers found that State Police study participants had a lower prevalence of sleep apnea, 20 percent compared to 33 percent among police overall. That’s probably because they were the least likely to be overweight or obese.
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Read more about this survey from JAMA
