ArticleThe European respiratory journal2025
Implementation of European national driving regulations for obstructive sleep apnoea: challenges and recommendations.
Article in The European respiratory journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Optimising the caffeine nap for counteracting driver sleepiness in CPAP treated obstructive sleep apnoea patients.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Editorial: Novel technologies in the diagnosis and management of sleep-disordered breathing, volume II.Frontiers in sleep · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundObstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) carries an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, which resulted in the European Commission introducing a legal directive (2014/85/EU) restricting driving in patients with moderate/severe OSA and sleepiness, unless effectively treated. We assessed the implementation of the directive in European Union (EU) member and non-member states.
methodsNational sleep societies and/or selected other sleep specialists in EU member states and selected other European countries completed a questionnaire on the local introduction of the EU Directive, or similar, the OSA severity to restrict driving, criteria to resume driving, and the validity period for different driving licences.
resultsData were obtained from 25 out of 27 EU member states and all eight non-member states included, representing a population of ∼770 million. All EU members had introduced the Directive into national regulations, largely unchanged, although some countries applied stricter criteria such as mild OSA and a minimum treatment period before resuming driving. Only five non-member states had driving regulations for OSA. Problems with implementation of regulations were reported in most countries, including inadequate resources to diagnose/treat OSA patients, excessive restrictions regarding disease severity and certification to resume driving, and under-reporting of symptoms by patients fearing the loss of their licence, especially professional drivers.
conclusionsDriving regulations for OSA apply in most European countries, but excessively strict criteria for OSA severity, sleepiness and delayed permission to resume driving are questionable. Further research is needed on whether such regulations result in fewer accidents and on the objective identification of sleepiness.
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Registered trials
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