A New Standard for Sleep Breathing Health
Studies show that healthy workers are more productive. Yet many employers overlook the link between poor sleep, increasing health costs and absenteeism issues, and declining productivity. Employers who address the two most common causes of poor sleep – insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea – can make a real difference in the lives of their employees. At the same time, they can improve the job performance and productivity costs that are lost each year due to employee fatigue.
According to the Corporate Health & Wellness Association, about 20 percent of employers plan to address sleep as part of their health and wellness programs. They recognize the importance of sleep to overall health, and want to help their employees identify what is preventing them for getting a good night’s rest.
With DROWZLE<sup>®</sup>, companies can add an effective screening tool to their corporate wellness programs. DROWZLE is a software program that works through smartphones to capture symptom data as well as to record and analyze sleep-breathing sounds and patterns.
The information reported by DROWZLE helps users to understand their risk for sleep disorders and can motivate them to seek diagnosis and treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, if appropriate.
Source: Management Science, Doing Well by Making Well: The Impact of Corporate Wellness Programs on Employee Productivity,
How Sleep Apnea Affects
Overall Health
OSA is a life-threatening sleep breathing disorder that affects 25 million to 28 million American adults.
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About 80 percent of adults with moderate to severe OSA are not being treated for the condition.
In some cases, adults with severe, untreated OSA may stop breathing for up to two minutes.
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The periods when you stop breathing also cause dips in blood-oxygen levels, which can release stress hormones, affecting blood pressure and heart rate.
The lack of quality sleep has been linked to:
OSA may also cause or worsen other health conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, erectile dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain cancers.
OSA can be effectively and successfully treated. Treatment options have greatly improved in recent years and advances in technology have resulted in much better comfort and ease-of-use.
OSA is more than snoring
Common symptoms of OSA include:- Choking or gasping while sleeping
- Loud snoring
- Morning headaches and nausea
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Irritability or feelings of depression
- Disturbed sleep
- Concentration and memory problems
- Frequent night-time urination
- Loss of sex drive, impotence or both
How big of a problem is OSA?
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As much as 16 percent of the American population has diagnosable OSA.
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People who have OSA can stop breathing from 10 to 120 seconds at a time, as often as dozens of times per hour or hundreds of times per night.
Men are twice as likely to have sleep apnea as women, but women are eight times less likely to receive a diagnosis.*
Source: National Sleep Foundation
Health and Workplace Safety
People who have untreated OSA are
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more likely
to have a stroke than someone without OSA, and three times more likely to have heart disease.
Studies show that nearly
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of ALL
sleep apnea sufferers will receive a diagnosis of hypertension.
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more accidents
The odds of work accidents in persons with OSA are almost double that of those without OSA.
OSA had the strongest association with workplace accidents compared to all other sleep disorders.
Sources: National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Sleep Disorders Guide, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Health Care Savings: The Economic Value of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Care for Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Middle-aged and older people who regularly get five of sleep a night or less are 2.5 times more likely to have diabetes, compared with those who slept seven to eight hours per night.
Sources: National Center for Biotechnology Information and Sleep Disorders Guide
Benefits of overcoming OSA
Proper diagnosis and effective treatment of OSA can greatly improve your employees’ quality of life, their physical and mental health, and even lead to a healthier lifestyle.
It is well documented that OSA treatment can reduce blood pressure and heart rate, reduce the risk of stroke and CHF, and reduce HbA1c to improve control of blood sugar in diabetics. ¹ ² ³
In one patient survey, 33 percent of people reported drinking fewer alcoholic beverages and 62 percent reported smoking fewer cigarettes after being diagnosed and treated for OSA.
¹ Kaneko, 2003 ² Becker, 2003 ³ Babu, 2005
Source: Frost and Sullivan research, reported by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Healthier Employees
With effective treatment of OSA, employees may reduce their risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Improved Productivity
Fatigue is estimated to cost employers $136 billion a year in health-related lost productivity, according to one report.
Source: National Safety Council
People who were treated for obstructive sleep apnea increased their productivity on the job by 117.3 percent and reduced their absences by 11.8 days.
Source: Frost and Sullivan research, reported by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Cost Savings
Effective management of OSA can produce significant cost savings for employers, employees and their insurers.
Source: Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
HOW TO GET STARTED
We created the DROWZLE mobile software system to provide an easy way to record and analyze sleep breathing patterns, so you know when you need to talk to your doctor or take steps to improve your sleep breathing health.
As you sleep, DROWZLE records sleep breathing patterns and sends sound files to our secure servers in the cloud.
DROWZLE analyzes and interprets the sleep results along with the profile you provide, to measure and track your sleep-related health risks over time. Each morning, you receive the results from the prior night’s sleep.
DROWZLE can provide tips and resources to help you understand your sleep health risks so that you can have more restful nights and alert days.
Cost Comparison:
Treating heart disease versus OSA
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Approximately 41,000 new cases of heart disease each year can be attributed to OSA. The costs related to a successful angioplasty procedure, including the hospital stay and testing, can cost about 30 times as much as diagnosis and treatment of OSA.
Sources: https://web.stanford.edu/~dement/us.html; The Stanford Sleep Book
CONTACT US
Contact RESONEA to request a call from a business development associate to discuss how to move forward with DROWZLE.