Using Ayurveda and science for restful sleep

Beyond soft pillows, dim lights and sleep supplements, the solution for restful Sleep may lie in listening to our bodies

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

“There are hundreds and thousands of people who wear their sleepless stressed state as a badge of honour. I am guilty of that as well!” It is an incongruous statement for an author of a book on sleep, but that’s precisely what Deepa Kannan, author of How to Sleep Better, says during the course of an interview with Lounge. An allied functional medicine and Ayurvedic health counsellor and yoga teacher in Bengaluru, Kannan shares how she has had to grapple with sleep issues as much as anyone else. “At one point of time, when my son was ailing from some health issues, I realised that I hadn’t prioritised my own sleep. We think we have infinite resources and can get past it,” she wryly observes. 

The sixth edition of Wakefit’s Great Indian Sleep Scorecard (GISS) report released last year, revealed some concerning figures. The findings of this survey, conducted only in Bengaluru, showed that 91% of Bengalureans used their phones before bedtime ‘despite knowing the importance of switching off from digital devices at least one hour before bed’. The report also found that 60% of the city’s workforce felt sleepy during work hours and 26% people believed they were suffering from insomnia.