14 DAY TRIAL // We all know that sleep disorders could have serious consequences, the first being fatigue, but Danish sleep researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the Danish Institute for Health Services Research have actually looked at the socio-economic consequences of hypersomnia, in one of the largest studies of its kind.
The survey included data from 2208 patients and a control group of 8832 healthy participants, all over 30 years of age, over a seven-year period.
After gathering and analyzing all data, the researchers concluded that one in four patients with hypersomnia needed hospital treatment over the study period, while for the control group, the figure was of one in ten.
During the seven years of the study, 78% of patients with sleep disorders were taking some form of medicine (out of which 57% was state-subsidized medicine), compared to 68% of the control group (with only 42% of people taking state-subsidized medicine).
State support was given to 47% of hypersomnia patients, while in the control group, there were only 35% benefiting from it.
The overall conclusion of the study is that sleep disorders have very serious consequences for the individual as well as for the entire society.
Hypersomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive tiredness during the day.
People suffering from it are extremely sleepy and need to take a nap several times a day, regardless of where they are, since it can occur both at work, during a meal, in the middle of a conversation or behind the steering wheel.
Poul Jennum, Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology from the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen, explains that hypersomnia is usually a symptom of sleep disorders like narcolepsy, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, violent snoring and/or obesity-related breathing difficulties.
Previous studies concluded that sleep disorders affect people's quality of life, both socially and economically, and the professor said that, according to the studies, people who snore violently but most of all, those who suffer from sleep apnea, narcolepsy and obesity-related breathing difficulties use the health services more frequently, take more medicine, and are more frequently unemployed.
And the more serious the sleep disorders is, the higher the subsequent costs become – every person who snores violently, suffers from narcolepsy or hypersomnia costs Danish society an annual figure of EURO 10,223 and EURO 2190 respectively.
The amounts include the direct cost of frequent doctor's visits, hospital admissions or medicine expenses and indirect costs in the form of lost working hours.
Poul Jennum said that this is the first study that actually shows the socio-economic consequences of untreated hypersomnia, adding that last year he and his colleagues conducted a similar study on the socio-economic consequences of narcolepsy.
He says that it is essential that people suffering from sleep disorders have access to a system of treatment, in order to benefit from a normal education, to preserve their ability to work and thus their economic circumstances and health.
This study has been published in the December 2010 edition of Acta Neurological Scandinavia.