BENGALURU: When they called for applications for a sleep internship programme, little did Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, co-founder and director, Wakefit.co. anticipate over 1.7 lakh applications from across India and 30 countries. That set off a chain of ideas, one of them being the recently-launched campaign that will allow people to track and evaluate their sleep patterns sitting anywhere in the country.
The announcement of the search for ‘India’s Sleep Champion’ who will win a prize of `10 lakh, recently saw the likes of Luke Coutinho, holistic lifestyle coach and author, and Dr Arun Sasidharan, scientist, Center for Consciousness Studies, NIMHANS, participating in the discussion to drive conversations around sleep. The panel discussion also touched upon the deepening crisis and triggers, health and science behind it, and the trends and impact on lifestyle. “#SleepIndiaSleep is an attempt to amplify and sustain the conversations around sleep in India in the World Sleep Month.
We realised that India is ready to take actionable steps towards better sleep health. All they need is a push to make it happen. While the Sleep Internship campaign touched some lives, we wanted to create a movement in India, where every Indian takes pride in maintaining great sleep health. The inter-city, inter-state and ultimately nation-wide competition is our quest to find India’s sleep champion,” says Ramalingegowda.
Contrary to popular belief, experts Coutinho, and Sasidharan, threw light on how each person has different sleep requirements and the influences of lifestyle, sleep environment on sleep patterns of individuals. They also talked to the audience about the impact of food, exercise and emotional well-being on sleep and the complexities of REM and non-REM sleep. With India being the India is the second-most sleep-deprived country in the world, Ramalingegowda felt the need for movement that can bring sleep back into our mainstream discourse. “We hope to make this a mass movement,” he says.
FACT FILE
Anyone who is interested in sleeping better and leading a healthier lifestyle can apply
Registrations will be open from March 13 to 31 2020
Applicants need to download a sleep tracker app and sync it with the Wakefit.co microsite to log in their sleep detail.
The leader board ranking on the microsite will display the real-time rankings at city, state as well as the national level.
A prize of Rs 10 lakh is in store for the national-level prize winner