BENGALURU: A recent study conducted as part of a health awareness initiative pointed to some unpleasant statistics in Bengaluru’s sleeping habits. The study — by Godrej Interio Sleep@10 — was conducted across multiple cities using 80,000 respondents, and indicated that the city is one of the sleep deprived in the country, with 69.7 per cent of residents saying they never/very rarely sleep at 10pm, 45.3 per cent residents sleeping less than six hours, nearly 55 per cent sleeping after 12am, and a massive 93.2 per cent saying they scroll through their phones/tabs or watch TV before falling asleep.
While these poor sleeping habits have now become a way of life, they are detrimental to health in the long run. For Roshan Mathew, who worked with a call centre for a few years, and Eesha Sahni (name changed), a media professional, sleep has been a long-standing issue. Both worked in shifts, which affected their sleep cycles — working at night and sleeping in the day. While Mathew chose to change his job, Sahani decided to seek help, and eventually, resorted to mild medication to get her to sleep in the day. Meanwhile, Ananth Barla, who shifted to the city recently from Delhi, has been suffering from allergies each night, disrupting his sleep and productivity. “Despite Delhi’s pollution, I find that here, my allergies have got aggravated,” he said.
Dr Shantanu Tandon, sleep apnea and endoscopic surgeon, senior consultant, Sakra World Hospital, said that he sees two types of Bengalureans coming to him frequently – those who have bad sleeping habits and those suffering from blockages due to allergies. “I see four-five patients with these issues coming to me daily. There are those who work night shifts — especially the IT crowd — who need to keep up with US or UK timings, and there are those suffering from pollen or dust allergies. In both cases, quality of life is affected, especially when it comes to productivity,” he said.
Dr Tandon added that getting less than 10 hours of sleep can lead to various issues, apart from waking and not ‘feeling fresh’, irritability and reduced productivity. “High blood pressure, heart problems and strokes are seen among those who do not get adequate sleep,” he said.
Digital detox a must
Meera Haran, a psychologist and psychotherapist with a private practise in Jakkur, said that poor ‘sleep hygiene’ is an extremely crucial issue right now — where something as basic as sleep is being taken for granted and causing a domino effect in how it impacts various aspects of life.
“I work with a lot of kids and teenagers who have no set boundaries when it comes to screen time. Parents don’t enforce rules or push for a digital detox before sleeping, and then they come to me saying their child is depressed, not doing well at school, etc,” she said, adding that the outcome of lack of sleep, especially due to the usage of gadgets before sleeping, makes the younger lot low on energy, affects communication and social interaction, anxious and prone to clinical depression.
Nutrition, bad posture also affect sleep
Inadequate sleep or the inability to sleep is quite often a symptom of stress, anxiety or depression, said Monisha Sharma, a city-based counselling psychologist, adding that a lot of Bengalureans she consults report sleep issues, even if it isn’t their primary concern. “Sleep hygiene strongly recommends cutting down on screen time right before bed in order to improve the quality of sleep. Lifestyle habits can also affect our sleep patterns — working in odd-hour shifts, stress, work-life balance, bad posture, nutrition, lack of exercise, etc,” she added.