My guest today is from SleepSmart.club, a sleep apnea treatment program for the millions of truck drivers who drive our country’s highways every day. “Sleep” is a taboo topic in North America today, but it presents a tremendous problem with serious consequences if not addressed. 80% of all truck drivers suffer from some type of sleep issue and a big part of what they discuss on this episode of “Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast” is how sleep apnea affects the general public and specifically how it affects truck drivers and their companies.
You can reach Daphne Montgomery of SleepSmart:
437 247 2387
[email protected]
https://sleepsmart.club/
John Farquhar
Summit Risk Solutions: summitrisksolutions.ca
1 226 802-2762
[email protected]
Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc: safetydawg.com
[email protected]
1 905 973 7056
Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#sleepapnea #trucking #highwaysafety
Do you need a “Truck Driver Safety Policy?” Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy
Transcript.
SleepSmart
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: [00:00:00] Welcome to a very exciting podcast today. And I say that and I know yeah. Here’s another intro. He’s trying to get us hooked. Of course I am. But today’s episode is what I believe to be extremely important. For those of you who know me you know that I take truck driver health and truck driver mental health.
Very seriously, and today I’m really excited to have Daphne Montgomery from Sleep Smart because Daphne is going to be discussing today a. Health issue that is probably close to being a pandemic in the trucking industry. So with that, let’s bring Daphne on in what I believe to be one of the most important episodes ever of the Trucking Risk and Insurance podcast.
Stay with us.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Hi Daphne.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: Welcome to the podcast [00:01:00] with Chris and I, give us a little bit about yourself and sleep smart if you would.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Sure. Great. Thank you to the two of you for having me on today. I am an individual that has until I joined Sleep Start, which is an really exciting company.
And the program we have is one of a client in Canada, and I’m so excited to be a part of this team. My background is all in transportation, logistics, supply chain. That’s where I spent my career. So when this opportunity came up it was again, really exciting because it’s filling a gap that exists in the transportation industry today.
And it is a health and wellness program that what helps to reinforce the continuous improvement within a safety culture of an organization. And yeah, and as I said, as I’ve said repeatedly, I’m excited to be here today and talk about our program.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Cool. Yeah, I think it’s. Hugely exciting. So as we get going today, our listeners and viewers may find out some personal information about me, Chris [00:02:00] Harris, and it is my choice to release this information.
And Daphne has access to it because I have participated in the Sleep Smart program, and so I’ve given her permission anything that she says. This isn’t normal, is basically, is what I’m saying, that they would release this and talk about individuals over the air like this. But we have it all covered.
And I’ve given my permission because I do have in the past been diagnosed with sleep apnea. . So tell us, Daphne, what is sleep apnea?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Sure. So sleep apnea occurs when an individual. Supposed to be sleeping, and it’s the complete closure of the airway. So what happens in an individual when this is happening?
Their brain senses that there’s no blood flow, hence forth. No oxygen is getting to the brain. And the brain essentially sends a shock to your heart to wake [00:03:00] your body up so that your heart will start pumping again. Is. Shortened clinical kind of not So clinical description of what happens is
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: snoring a a symptom of sleep apnea?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yes, it is absolutely one of the most common symptoms of,
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: okay, so sleep apnea I’m just wanting to clear a couple things because every now and then my airway gets blocked. And it usually happens shortly after I start snoring. And I just wondered if this was true sleep apnea because my. Usually is the one that is restricting the airflow by putting her hands around my neck and going, will you shut off for?
So I just wanted to, her, putting her hands around my throat would be a form of sleep apnea.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: I can’t speak to that. . Yes. When your airway closes, that is considered sleep apnea. Yeah. So depending on the individual and the severity level of their sleep apnea, this can happen hundreds of times throughout the night.
. Yeah. And so you’ve already mentioned one of the most common symptoms, which is [00:04:00] snoring, but other common symptoms would include daytime drowsiness, morning headaches because of the blocks for the amount of oxygen that was going to your brain. Those are a couple other very common
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: symptoms. I’ve actually heard of some people.
I don’t wanna say in driving careers and whatnot, but other people of nodding off , and they say they got a good night’s sleep, but it’s evident they didn’t. And in further studies that they went through, they found out that they had a form of sleep apnea or sleep disorder and whatnot, which was causing them to nod off at the controls.
When you would think most people would be quite alert for that. .
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: And that is the biggest challenge, particularly from a safety perspective, not only of the individual, but when we think of professional drivers, they spend a significant amount of time on the road comparative to those of us that have positions that were in an office more regularly and that sort of things.
But yeah, drivers Untreated and undiagnosed sleep apnea. , actually [00:05:00] are in collisions at the rate of five times an individual that either doesn’t have it, so a control or somebody that has it and is being treated for their sleep apnea. , can you five times a crash rate.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Yeah. Can you speak to some of the ways that you can trigger sleep apnea?
Because specifically I’m thinking back in my insurance days when I was about 25 pounds heavier, I could not drive from Windsor to Toronto after seeing a client. Without pulling over and having a little nap for 20 minutes because I literally, I was doing the head bobs, the holy shit. I can’t make it.
What are, so I know obesity is one and what
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: are some of the other? I definitely is a contributor but it’s doesn’t tend to be the only contributor. . So one in four Canadian adults has sleep apnea. And of the one in four, approximately 80% of those individuals are [00:06:00] undiagnosed.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Wow. So hold it, repeat that.
What’s the percentage of people that have sleep apnea that is undiagnosed?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yes. So approximately one in four individuals, Canadian adults has sleep apnea and of. About 80% are undiagnosed.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Wow. So that’s a few million people walking around. .
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: coma. Yeah. Is there is there any stats or data on whether that mix
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: would be more males versus
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: females?
Or females more than males or anything like that? So
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: there is research, so it definitely it tends to afflict males more regularly than females. But that being said, , that being said, there’s absolutely females that, that are affected.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: This, I’ve met a few. I’ve met a few. Yeah. And interesting enough, one of the things like I agree with what you were saying earlier, that BMI can be a one of the.
I guess calculations and whatnot, but it’s not the end all be all because I’ve seen people who are as skinny as my finger who have had a sleep [00:07:00] disorder of some sort, and they go. , you’re not fat. Yeah. People contribute to being overweight when that’s not necessarily it at all. Yes.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: I would agree.
Yeah, like I said, BMI can be a contributing factor, but it is typically not the only factor that is contributing. So when we talk about your airway completely closing if you think about it as we age, just even the taughtness in our muscles changes, right? , . It’s not quite as firm as when we were 20, our throat muscles.
Tho those are factors that contribute as well.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: So you’re saying people, so far I’ve heard men more than women. Significantly. And older men. More than older women, significantly. And Johnny, what are we describing here? We’re describing truck drivers predominantly male. About 95% are male. No, I didn’t say
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: 95% male.
Sorry. No. I sent,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: sorry. You misunderstand. In our industry. Oh yes. Truck drivers are about [00:08:00] 95%. Yeah, sorry. Male truck drivers are about 95%. Yep, about 5%. And. The average age is pushing 50 or 55. I forget the stat. So you’re saying obesity and age contribute and it’s a male problem largely, and I’m saying you just described the truck drivers in our world.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: Yeah,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: definitely is middle-aged for sure. , and the rate for men compared to women is about 25%.
So talking on a population as a whole, right? About 9% for women versus
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: this is why I’m so excited that Sleep Smart has done what they have done because our industry truck drivers, we are. For sleep apnea, many of us anyways because of the sedentary job, they are [00:09:00] often overweight. We are certainly, the average age is way beyond 45.
Certainly pushing 50 or 55 for the average age. So we’re male and we’re overweight and we’re older. My God, that’s many of the possible contributing factors to having sleep AP. And I’m
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: gonna throw in there a little bit more. We have a lot of new drivers coming into the industry that don’t understand the lifestyle, and if you are not, if you’re not understanding the lifestyle properly and managing your time to make sure you stay well rested, you’re gonna have a hard time managing the sleep disorder or fatigue issues at.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: absolutely. Yeah. From a, yeah. For a fatigue management and mitigation perspective, absolutely. . Yeah. So we we talked about, the persons that are affected, and again . , 80% of those are undiagnosed. We talked about the increase in crash rate but I’d like to spend a little bit of time talking about some really important [00:10:00] information.
Sure. Specifically to an individual and what the impacts in their body physiologically could be. When they have undiagnosed sleep apnea. And so some of the numbers that I’m going to say are shocking, but individuals have a 3.7 time risk of stroke.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Wow. The so significantly higher risk of stroke.
Yeah.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Significant. Yeah. Yeah. Absolut. . Excellent. So if, yeah, when you talk, think about that. So a lot of cardiovascular comorbidities exist, so yeah, increased blood pressure a higher chance of having diabetes. All of those fall into the cardiovascular incidences that occur when an individual has untreated sleep apnea.
. , definitely. When you mentioned your wife not being happy about your snoring, , John . So then you mentioned, yes, that snoring is the most common [00:11:00] symptom. That being said, there are occasional persons that don’t snore, that have sleep apnea, but it’s not, it’s definitely not the norm so to speak.
. So interestingly enough, it’s typically a bed partner that starts the process for an individual to go down a path of finding out. It’s I can’t sleep, something is wrong with you. You need to go to the doctor. So individuals with sleep apnea three times as likely to sleep apart from their partner.
. And ironically the divorce rate is exactly the same. It’s three times as high. Wow. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Geez. I, yeah, a lot of truck drivers are already sleeping separate from their partner because doing long haul. Sure. Yeah. They only get home a few times a week or hopefully a few times a week.
Yeah. And so that could prolong. The diag, not the diagnosis, that’s the wrong word, but the encouragement to go get tested . , with truck drivers. Because honestly, when, [00:12:00] I didn’t know I had sleep apnea. I was a safety guy and I recognized all the signs in myself. That’s when I went and got tested.
And I was diagnosed with sleep AP. But I did it the old fashioned way. We’re gonna get into that in a minute. I wanna ask you one more question about the psychological impacts of all this.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: What happens? Absolutely. Yeah. They’re huge. Mental health is a huge symptom of untreated, undiagnosed sleep apnea.
If we go back, Even thinking about ourselves. So if you have a night or two where you haven’t slept properly, you’re not your normal high functioning self, think about it. It could have been last night. With this information that you’ve been provided, Chris and your family, I’m sure that’s causing you to not sleep.
If we think about that after a couple days, how are we? We’re irritable, we’re clumsy. Our cognitive abilities are impacted. And then as that prolongs, so more than a night or two or a week when we start moving into the more medium [00:13:00] term risks. So this is weeks and months of individuals not having proper quality and quantity of sleep.
Again, we’re moving into some of those cardiovascular issues that we talked about. High blood pressure, diabetes, risk of stroke, risk of cancer as well is significantly increased. And then when we go into the long term, so prolonged, so months and years of individuals not having proper sleep, that’s when we start to see the more significant impact on mental health.
Absolutely.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: Absolutely. I’m just gonna add could this past weekend also have a trigger effect if you already have say maybe some mild sleep disorders and then you have this lovely time chains that happens twice a year. , could this not trigger some severity for a short period of time or something to that effect as well?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yeah, absolutely. When sleep is interrupted. So again, I’ve talked about quantity and quality. . Yeah. When you lose an hour of sleep, [00:14:00] so to speak yes, absolutely. Impacts are, if you think about it, why today are there so many crashes? Because people, mm-hmm. are they lost an hour of sleep. I don’t know about you, but when I woke up this morning, Normal time.
That was hour earlier. It was like, oh, like how are you feeling this morning? I’m feeling like I think most everybody else’s. Yeah. That had to swing ahead this weekend, right? Yeah. So just getting your body back into the rhythm. , yeah,
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: definitely. Yeah. I had but dragging IDA syndrome
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: this.
John always has butt dragging. I .
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yes. Not gonna call that, but I was gonna say, so that is definitely, as I mentioned earlier, some daytime drowsiness and sleepiness. Sure. That definitely is a symptom of sleep. AP sleep apnea for
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: sure. Cool. Yeah, and that’s what I say. I knew I, or sorry, I strongly suspected I had it when I couldn’t drive a significant length of time without getting drowsy during the [00:15:00] day, especially with my diet of coffee and donuts,
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: sugar and caffeine.
That’ll keep you .
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: It was. I mean I got concerned cuz driving was part of my job and , mm-hmm , I knew I wasn’t doing it safely and I couldn’t be produ if I was getting paid by the mile. My God, how in the heck can you be productive driving an hour or two and then having to pull over for an app?
Just, yeah, exactly. I’m afraid a lot of truck drivers drive tired. ,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: I would agree, especially, again, going back to the numbers that we have discussed for individuals that are afflicted with sleep apnea and then the undiagnosed percentage. . , absolutely. I would agree with that statement, Chris.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Yeah. It’s just huge. But how does, what’s the sleep, what’s Sleep Smart about? And how can they, because the reason I’m so excited to have you on the show is that there is help out there. Yes. And sleep smart is [00:16:00] one of the ways that we can help or there is help available. Can you describe that?
Absolutely.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Sure. Recognizing. Sleep health is incredibly important, not only to an individual, but the safety and as well with an OR within an organization. We’ve designed this program it’s a virtual sleep clinic for Canada’s workforce is what it’s,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: sorry, stop there. Why is a virtual sleep clinic so much better than the way I was originally diagnosed here in.
Yeah.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: The reason we designed the program to be virtual is because the current patient path today, depending where you live in Canada, the process can be anywhere from four to even 10 months, depending where you live. Wow.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: So the normal process, sorry, you gotta stress that four
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: depending on where you live.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Yes.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Four to 10 minutes.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: And that’s from the time your doctor. [00:17:00] Let’s arrange a sleep test.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yes. So that’s from the time you make an appointment with your gp. Then you take time off work, go see your gp. Then your GP speaks to you, refers you to a sleep physician. Then you have to wait for the referral. Then you have to wait for that appointment.
Then you have to take more time off work, go see the sleep physician. Wow. The sleep physician will recommend a sleep test, whether that’s in lab or at home. If it’s in lab, then you have to wait, make an appointment, go sleep somewhere else, not in your own bed, and you are observed and tested while doing that.
If it’s a home sleep test, then you have to go pick up the sleep test, administer the test, then you have to go back, take the test back. Then you have to wait for the results to be interpreted. Then you have another appointment with that sleep physician. If you do in fact have sleep apnea, they will write a prescription.
Then you have to make [00:18:00] another appointment at a clinic to go be set up for your therapy. So that is why the process from beginning to end four to 10 months, depending where you live, how much time off work, how much time sitting around in a doctor’s waiting room, potentially going overnight to sleep, some.
And our program, we’ve designed virtual so that it is highly accessible, really easy to use in individuals that go through our program. If they do in fact have sleep apnea, they can be screened to therapy within seven to 15 days. And our program includes an independent consultation with an accredited sleep physician within their various provinces where they.
Governed by their academies. And as well, we have a sleep sleep coach as part of our program as well.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: I can now understand why 80% go undiagnosed cuz it’s . I haven’t got enough time in the week or the [00:19:00] day or the year to spend dealing with this. I’ll just keep driving and hope
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: it goes away.
, John, I can tell you that after I went to my doctor from the time my doctor said, okay, I, because I self-diagnosed myself, and he said, why do you think you have sleep apnea? I went through all the different signs and he went, , why do you know so much? I said, I’m a safety guy in trucking.
Yeah. I’m supposed to know about this stuff. And I got all the signs. So anyways, from the time that appointment happened and they sped me through because I had an AZ license. Or Class one, depending on where you live. Yep. And they sped me through and it took four months and two sleep things in the sleep lab.
Two nights in the sleep lab. and four months before I got my C P A P machine. Wow. And I’m happy to say that Sleep Smart has tackled that problem. Yeah. Like it’s huge. Anyways, Daphne, [00:20:00] carry on please, because I’m really excited.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: No, I’m, the way that we are able to eliminate all of this time, effort, time off work is the way that we’ve designed our program.
, so how our program works as an individual. , we’ll fill out a screening questionnaire. It’s a nine question questionnaire. Takes about, I don’t. , 90 seconds would you say, Chris, how long did it take you to fill it out? I know it took me about 90 seconds to fill it out
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: for our listeners and viewers.
I did get retested, so I went to a sleep clinic many years ago, about 10, and got diagnosed and I happily lost some weight over the years, and so I begged Daphne to include me E even though when I did, yes, 90 seconds. I would agree with you. It wasn’t long. What did you say? Nine questions. Yes. Yeah. So it’s not even many questions.
They’re pretty easy questions. So maybe 90 seconds, and [00:21:00] I didn’t trigger. The whatever you call it, what would you call it? A,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: a consult with a sleep coach is what I would call it. Okay. So yeah, depending how you answer your questions from a potential risk level. So in Kris’s case, he came back low.
So for all intents and purposes for the way our program works, we would. Every employee within an organization to take this 92nd questionnaire. , those individuals that fall into the low risk category for all intents and purposes, they are, they’re, they’ve completed their part of our program.
Cool individuals that fall into a medium to high risk potential for sleep apnea will be prompted to book a virtual consult with a sleep coach, so a respiratory therapist, and then you will meet with that individual, go over your results of the questionnaire that you completed, and then if the sleep coach thinks that a home sleep study would be required, [00:22:00] one will be sent to your.
We’ll go through how you administer it. And maybe at this point, Chris, I’ll let you jump in and talk about. How easy it was for you to administer the home sleep
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: test? I thought it was funny. A couple of things. First of all, the box is like tiny. If anybody’s been through an actual sleep study
I’ll post, I’ll put a picture on here of me the original time I went for my sleep study. But look at this. This is, it is nothing more than, it’s a little bit bigger than my watch, and there is, Pad that goes somewhere. I forget exactly, but the instructions were quite clear where to put the pad. Just one.
And I emphasize that. And then we have a little, oh, I don’t know what do you call this? A finger coat? No, but . Yeah,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: the clip. It’s not even a clip. I don’t know what the proper medical term [00:23:00] is
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: for that’s, I know it’s an oxygen sensor. And you put it on a finger anyway, this is it. Three lousy pieces compared to the picture I just posted and I’m happy to say my results came back that I no longer have sleep apnea and I attribute that mostly to losing a bit of weight.
Cause I’m down about 20 pounds from 2025 pounds from when I had sleep apnea. I bet you eat better. Sometimes I’m married to an Italian, so that pasta tastes good, but it’s not good for my waistline. ,
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: nothing like the two for one hotdogs I had for lunch
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: today. Yeah, . But that’s it. Look, it, it’s, yes.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: Could that device, can it be used more than,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: That is No, it’s a one-time use device. Oh,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: is it? Okay. I’m laughing because I emailed Daphne. I said, definitely I didn’t get the return address. Where do I send this thing back? Yeah. And she said, no, it’s a onetime use. Oh [00:24:00] shoot.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: New. Because I, what I was wondering is if you had like a couple.
Myself, my wife, and maybe we want to get tested, could that I use that device one night or whatever. And then could she use it another night to record or would we have to have two separate devices?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: You know what, I have not been asked that question. . So I know it’s use to somebody.
And then once as Chris, once you wake up, you press complete and the data is uploaded to be interpreted. Yeah. Hi. The sleep physician, so I. We’ll need to get back to you because I am not sure that it can be used again for an individual in the same household. That’s, I’ll
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: bet you. Yeah. The only thing you would have to do is a new sticky pad for the, yeah.
The part that goes here is what I’m thinking, because everything else, but I did leave out one. Component. You do download a [00:25:00] cell phone app. And I know it’s available on both Android and iPhone. So you download the app, you Bluetooth it to the device I showed you, and that’s how the information gets back to sleep.
Smart, right? For analysis. And then what happens once you get the analysis, tell. What happens, or you can speak specifically of my case or and I repeat. She’s not disclosing anything that I haven’t given her permission to publicly disclose if she goes there,
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: right? So yes, the process would be the same as what you experienced, Chris.
So once you have completed the home sleep test, you will have a consult with the sleep coach. So it will be again, after the questionnaire, you would have met with a sleep coach. This sleep coach after the home sleep test will go through the results. And again, if the results indicate that there is sleep apnea is [00:26:00] present or anything else, then there will be a virtual consult with an independent sleep physician.
For that individual. If. think that you need a prescription. They will, in conjunction with your gp, you’ll receive a prescription for therapy, and then you’ll go back to that sleep coach and that sleep coach will work with you to be set up on the proper therapy that you require. And again, depending.
the way an individual’s face structure is which masks will be the most effective for that individual. And then as well that sleep coach will be checking in with you at two weeks and four weeks. That being said, if you need help on day two, that Sleep Coach is available for youth for the lifetime that you’re in the program as well.
Cool. Yes.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Yes. So to, to recap, instead of waiting four to 10 months for your physician to send you and get tested [00:27:00] and all that kinda, you can do it in about a week.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: . Yes. Uh, Seven to 15 days. Yeah.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Wow. , your saving lives is what it comes down to.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: And it’s very, Easy.
Like I could do it in a truck if that were the case. Yeah. Or if I’m home that weekend, I could do it at home,
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Wherever your most comfortable
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: spot is. Sign up for it, do the online questionnaire, find out what next steps we need to do and if we need to, you ship that device to home and I throw it in the truck above me.
I load the app on the way I go. Yes, so I might be getting ahead of myself here, but I’m just. If a motor carrier is interested in doing something like this with all their drivers and stuff. , what kind of, I’m not looking for an exact number, but what kind of ballpark fees would we be looking at for an individual basis or something like how does that work?
Or is it based on certain stages?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Nope. So there are yeah, definitely from a program administration fee, depending on the size of an organization, it’s a tiered pricing system, but it’s incredibly minimal. Incredibly minimal. Okay. Yeah, depending on the size of an [00:28:00] organization.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Mm-hmm. . .. . So in other words, reach out to Daphne
No, I that, that’s fair because depending on the size of the fleet and everything else it’s complicated. . So reach out to Daphne, she’ll walk you through. You don’t pay anything to reach out to Daphne, so you get all the information. Yeah. is that? Yeah.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: And I am, so the home sleep test that has $199 fee associated with it.
Cool. So that covers the device itself. Yeah. The shipping to the individual’s home and then the interpretation by the sleep physician of the data that’s included in that fee. Yeah. And depending on an organization, Health Benefit Plan. That may or may not be covered. And then the actual therapy setup itself again specific to the benefit plan that organization uses, but 70 to a hundred percent of therapy will typically be covered.
And that includes the setup itself initially and then the replenishment supplies [00:29:00] for the lifetime. So another wait feature of our program, twofold. is, there’s preferred pricing as well. So individuals that have undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea utilize a company’s healthcare benefits at 2.1 times the rate of an individual that either doesn’t have sleep apnea or has sleep apnea and is being treated.
. The benefit utilization that an organization Is significant depending on the number of employees within your organization from a bottom line perspective? Our program, there’s preferred pricing. So the, again, for the lifetime that an individual is, On the program, and this applies to any individuals that already might be on therapy.
. So again, depending on the size of your organization, immediately savings will be noticed as a result of our program. And you brought up a good point about a spouse. So if you do have a partner that is utilizing that organization’s benefits as well, that [00:30:00] discount two applies. Sure.
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: And I’m just sitting here, one of the biggest things.
Regardless of the your health benefits program. And I’ve had this from several people, Chris. Chris as well. A very, my one employee, a very good friend of mine and another friend of mine have all had sleep apnea. And they’re all on other than Chris now he’s cured. He’s cured, I have to admit.
But these guys are still using machine. And I have to admit, one of the things that’s been huge to. Is lifestyle. It has changed their lifestyle, their life has changed. So to me, regardless of the health plan program, the health benefits are huge.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: And I love the
John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions: fact that this program is not
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: invasive.
Yeah, John. One of the reasons I think I don’t have sleep apnea anymore is because I used the C P A P machine. Yeah. Because before being diagnosed, I was tired. I never wanted to work out. I didn’t have the discipline to eat properly, to do a little workout, to [00:31:00] go for a walk. But after I started getting, 8, 7, 6 hours of real restful sleep all of a sudden I did have a little more energy. Yeah. And I was mo it’s easier to be disciplined when you’re not bloody tired all the time. Yes. And it’s easier to go for a walk and do some of the things that, you should be doing . It’s just life became better for me after I got on my c A P.
Yep. And I really believe that is one of the ways I was able to lose some weight. And I’m happy to say I don’t need it anymore, but I gotta keep the weight off, I believe. And I may need it again as I continue to age. Cuz who knows?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: That you do bring up a good point, Chris, and it’s something that I too recommend with organizations with whom we partner exactly.
That our health changes as we age. So today, When you did the quick questionnaire in 90 seconds, I do recommend that something that’s completed, every annually or every [00:32:00] two years, because again, your health does change as you age. It might not be something today, but it could be down the line.
And when I talked about all of the increased, the diabetes, the blood pressure, the three times risk of stroke. Didn’t even get into the statistics in regard to workplace accidents and fatal workplace accidents because those numbers are significant as well.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: Yeah. But you did. Talk about more collisions.
What you had a stat for that, did you not? What was that? Yes.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Five times the rate of an individual. So yeah, five times the crash rate. It is that significant.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: If a trucking safety department wants to help reduce their crashes Yep. They should. Look, this is one of the many things that you should be looking at.
. So Daphne, as we wrap this show up, Pardon me? I said as we wrap this show up this episode. Yes. Yes. What else does somebody need to know about either Daphne or about Sleep Smart?
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: I would say that if you have [00:33:00] any questions, I would love for you to reach out to me and I would love to have a conversation in further detail about how Sleep Smart can partner with your organization.
And we can, again, as I said, health and wellness within individuals as well as reinforce the continuous improvement in a safety culture. Cool. So I believe at the end, Chris, you’ll have so our website will be posted and
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: in the show notes down below. Perfect Daphne’s contact info and the sleep Smart website link is right there.
So please reach out to Daphne. I’m excited about this because, and I’m sure John is too. We are safe and professionals. And I, having had sleep apnea myself, I know how it affects drivers and how it affects my driving. So I’m excited that there’s a much more reasonable, from a [00:34:00] cost perspective, I believe it’s more reasonable, but mainly the timeframe involved is much more reasonable.
I think this is a huge step forward for trucking safety. But absolutely. Who in the hell am I? .
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: And again, time is money, right? So you don’t need, as an employee, you don’t want to be out of your truck missing your driving hours because you. , you need to make money. . Yeah. So
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: John said you can have the, you can have this mailed to your house, pick it up, throw it into your truck, and while you’re still making money, do the test.
You don’t miss a beat. Not like when I did it. I had to spend two nights in a sleep clinic. Gosh darn. Anyways, Daphne. Yes. If you can’t tell, I’m really excited about this because I really believe it is something that can really help truck drivers and their health, so [00:35:00] absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Thank you.
Daphne Montgomery, SleepSmart: Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. And again, yeah, so excited to have been with you today. And yeah, please, any questions, just reach out.
Chris Harris, Safety Dawg: excellent. And Daphne’s contact info is in the show notes down below. I know you can tell I’m actually very excited about this new product that’s available for trucking companies to help them assess their drivers as well as everybody in the office.
It’s really an easy way to analyze your fleet and see if you can see how many people sleep Smart can help. So I really do encourage you to reach out to Sleep Smartt and Daphne, their contact infos in the show notes down below, please for everyone’s safety. Check it out. All right, that’s it for this week.
- Thank you all so much for being here for the week. This is the Trucking Risk and [00:36:00] Insurance podcast, and John and I will join you again next week.