Does India Sleep Well? Here’s How We Fare on ‘Sleep Health’

On World Sleep Day, the survey interviewed people from 12 countries to capture behaviours around sleep.

World Sleep Day 2019 is on 15 March.

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/FIT)

‘Early to bed and early to rise makes us healthy, wealthy and wise.’

Don’t know about the last two, but a good sleeping pattern definitely makes you more healthy. Several studies on sleep have reiterated how the lack of it can have dire consequences on our health.

On World Sleep Day 2019, the results from Philips’ annual global sleep survey suggest that “while Indians recognise the lack of inadequate sleep as a potential health issue, awareness still remains low on sleep disorders and available sleep therapy solutions.”

Getting enough sleep is important for good physical and mental health. (Photo: iStock)

73 percent

Indian adults want to improve the quality of their sleep, the survey indicates.

They interviewed 11,006 respondents in 12 countries, including India, to capture attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours around sleep.

That 73 percent exists despite 55 percent of Indian adults agreeing that they sleep well.

At the same time, many are actively trying and have improved their ‘sleep health’ in the past five years, 38 percent to be precise. That’s the highest of any country.

31 percent

Indian adults meditate, when it comes to improving sleep, higher than the global average of 26 percent.

The findings also point out to an appetite of using sleep improvement tech/wearables with 16 percent Indian adults inclined to use the devices to monitor and improve their sleep quality.

Indicating ignorance about sleep disorders, the survey also highlighted that nearly half of the sufferers perceive snoring to be natural, hereditary, or caused by age which is a major reason to not take it seriously.

A common sleeping disorder is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). If you snore excessively, feel tired or sleepy during the day, it could be a problem. OSA is a sleep associated breathing disorder which is characterised by pauses in breathing during sleep.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder.(Photo Courtesy: Philips)

Untreated OSA may cause long-term problems like diabetes and high blood pressure. So consult a doctor is you see any of the above symptoms.

Another survey done last year by Philips, showed what Indians think is causing their bad sleep and how they are dealing with it.

The results from Philips’ 2018 global sleep survey.(Photo: Shruti Mathur/FIT)