Sleep Disorder After Injury
The overlooked impact of sleep disorders following workplace and motor vehicle injuries
What are sleep disorders?
Sleep disorders are conditions that disrupt the normal sleep-wake cycle, leading to problems with sleep quality, timing, or duration, and impacting daytime functioning. They encompass a wide range of conditions, including insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, and various parasomnias.
The implications
Sleep disorders occur after physical injuries for people who have workplace or motor vehicle accidents. A large majority of these patients have sleep disorders
for which they incur significant impairment. This is an emerging field that is quickly growing, and most workers’ compensation and motor vehicle lawyers still do not realise the significance of sleep disorders for these patients.
- Sleep apnoea caused by weight gain due to physical or psychiatric injury and immobility.
- Insomnia from chronic pain or psychological injury (eg anxiety and depression).
- Opiate and other sedating medications (for chronic pain and psychiatric illness) worsen sleep apnoea and daytime tiredness.
- Sleeping in the supine position (on the back) due to chronic pain worsens sleep apnoea.
All of these result in significant Workers’ Comp Impairment Assessor.
Dr Andrew Dimitri
Respiratory & Sleep Physician
MBBS (hons) UNSW, BSc (med), MA (Int Rel), FRACP
Dr Dimitri has specific expertise in Occupational Lung Disease, Asthma, Sleep Medicine, Occupational Asthma, Smoking related Lung Disease, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, Non-respiratory sleep disorders, including narcolepsy and parasomnias.
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