Sleepless In India

Indians Are Facing A Debilitating Sleep Deficit, But Promising New Advances In Sleep Therapy Offer Them Hope

- SONALI ACHARJEE

Nobody has ever had to teach us how to sleep. Like hunger, thirst and breathing, sleep is biologically hardwired into the human body from the time it is in the womb. And yet, the impulse to sleep can also go into, or be pushed into, abeyance for long stretches of time. This is why 21-year-old Dinesh Batra, an engineering student in Delhi, never thought twice about compromising on the number of hours he slept. “I had to juggle studies, a long-distance relationship, issues in the family and losing weight. I managed to do everything by reducing the number of hours I slept,” he says. Puffy eyes, dark circles and pale skin were normal for Batra to wake up to. But never did he think that two years of erratic and reduced sleep would result in anything more. After messing up his circadian rhythm, or the body’s internal clock which is naturally aligned with the cycle of day and night, Batra now frequently needs medication to get any sleep.