[Excessive daytime sleepiness. An epidemiological study based on a "sleep/breathing" questionnaire]

A field survey used a "sleep-breathing" questionnaire to estimate the prevalence of the excessive daytime sleepiness in a sample of middle-aged males.

Eight hundred and fifty men aged 22 to 66 years agreed to answer a questionnaire and have anthropometric measurements. To the question on excessive daytime sleepiness, 90 subjects (10.8%) responded "often" or "almost always"; 740 gave a negative answer.

The sleepy subjects were older and had a higher "central" weight. All the sleep-disturbed breathing symptoms and those suggesting sleep disturbances were more frequent in sleepy subjects. Sleepiness was significantly associated with sleep apnea and chronic bronchitis. Logistic regression identified six items independently associated with daytime sleepiness; there were three indirect indicators of sleepiness, age, a history of chronic bronchitis and disruptive movements during sleep.

This epidemiologic study in a sample of active middle-aged males confirms the association of daytime sleepiness with a series of respiratory and non-respiratory sleep disturbances. The original findings are the role of a "central" obesity, the association with nightmares, and the role of chronic bronchitis as a determinant of daytime sleepiness.