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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Collecting Sleep, Circadian, Fatigue, and Performance Data in Complex Operational Environments
Published on: August 8, 2019
Excessive daytime sleepiness among Japanese public transportation drivers engaged in shiftwork
Shoichi Asaoka1, Kazuyoshi Namba, Satoru Tsuiki
1Department of Somnology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Objective:
To explore the actual condition of sleep disorders underlying subjective excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) among train and bus drivers engaged in shiftwork.
Methods:
This study targeted 3109 public transportation drivers. Clinical diagnoses were made based on 147 drivers who claimed to have subjective EDS, and 285 drivers who were judged to have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), based on the screening process.
Results:
Among these subjects, the prevalence of OSAS was 3.7% and that of shiftwork disorder (SWD) was 1.5%. SWD was common among drivers who had EDS (32.7% of drivers with EDS), and their EDS severity was higher than that of OSAS drivers. The drivers with SWD were mostly young and neither obese nor hypertensive.
Conclusions:
Encouraging awareness of SWD and OSAS could be necessary to prevent sleepiness-related accidents.
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