4 Tips To Sleep Better

Sleep deprivation is not yet recognized in India on par with diabetes, obesity or smoking. But it’s making us sick, fat and stupid.

- Beth Weinhouse & Kathakoli Dasgupta

In the wee hours of a Monday morning in March 2013, an SUV carrying 10 people crashed into a heavy vehicle on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, killing six people returning from a wedding party and injuring three. The driver of the SUV confessed that he had dozed off at the wheel. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The Save Life Foundation, an NGO working on road safety and emergency medical care, found that of the 364 road traffic accidents (RTA) on the highway between October 2012 and October 2014, 108 (nearly 30 per cent) could be attributed to fatigued drivers.

A 2009 AIIMS study involving 380 victims of RTA found that the majority were commercial drivers suffering from sleep deprivation. According to the researchers 60 per cent of them had not slept well the night before and 15 per cent had abnormal sleeping habits. “The lack of sleep impairs a person’s troubleshooting capacity and cognitive functions—so you may not use the brake at the right time or take a crucial turn,” says Dr M.S. Kanwar, senior consultant, respiratory medicine, critical care and sleep disorders, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. Nodding off for even a few seconds (known as microsleep) can have serious consequences.

India is among the top sleep deprived nations. According to the landmark Philips-AC Nielsen survey in 2009, almost 93 per cent Indians don’t get enough sleep, with 11 per cent confessing to dozing off at work and another 11 per cent taking leave to catch up on sleep. The Western world has acknowledged the issue and is taking steps to address it.