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Fifty to 70 million Americans chronically suffer from a disorder of sleep and wakefulness.
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Eighty to 90 percent of adults with clinically significant sleep-disordered breathing remain undiagnosed.
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At least 5 percent of the population is affected by restless leg syndrome, which also affects more than 20 percent of pregnant women.
Source: Institute of Medicine
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A poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found 62 percent of all adults surveyed had driven a car while feeling drowsy and over 25 percent admitted they had actually dozed off while driving.
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Drivers are up to seven times more likely to have an automobile accident if they have untreated obstructive sleep apnea.
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More than 50 percent of Americans aged 65 and older have a sleep problem.
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The prevalence of sleep disorders appears to increase with advancing age, and as Americans age, an estimated 80 million Americans will have a sleep problem by the year 2010.
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Sleep disorders add an estimated $15.9 billion to the national health care bill.
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found 28 percent of commercial truck drivers they surveyed had obstructive sleep apnea ranging from mild to severe.
Source: www.osaonline.com
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Sleep apnea occurs in all age groups and both sexes, but it is more common in males and in those over the age of 40.
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Estimates suggest that as many as 18 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea.
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Risk factors for sleep-disordered breathing include being overweight and having heart failure, underactive thyroid or some physical abnormality in the nose, throat or other parts of the upper airway.
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Sleep apnea also seems to run in some families, suggesting a possible genetic basis.
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African-American children were more than three times as likely as children of other races to develop sleep-disordered breathing.
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Elderly African Americans are more than twice as likely as elderly whites to suffer from sleep-disordered breathing.
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Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other heart diseases, depression, irritability, learning and memory difficulties, weight gain, impotence, and headaches.
Source: American Lung Association
