Sleep is the third pillar of good health along with exercise and nutrition. It is necessary for the rejuvenation of the body and the mind. In today’s fast-paced world our sleep is often compromised for work and entertainment. The connection between sleep and health is real. Sleep awareness is a concept that seeks to promote better sleep as a way to increase overall health and well-being. It also provides us with an opportunity to look at our own sleep habits and search for ways to improve on it and aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems. (Also read: Mental Health Day 2022: How sleep affects your mental health? Expert offers tips )
Talking to HT Lifestyle, Seema Arora, Healthcare Expert and Business Head, South Asia, ResMed, shared insights on Importance of creating sleep awareness.
Lack of sleep can lead to several health issues in the long run and can have a detrimental impact on our mental and physical well-being thus impacting our personal and professional lives. This can result in economic burden due to loss of productivity, higher risk of comorbidities and even road accidents. Even though sleep is such an important aspect of our daily life, we do not speak about it enough.
With only a handful of sleep labs for a population of over 1.3 billion, the level of sleep awareness continues to remain low in a country like India. According to the ResMed’s ALA sleep health survey, as many as 55% of Indian adults face trouble sleeping at least three nights a week. In the same survey, 34% were also aware that snoring was a sign of a poor night’s sleep. In this survey, 51% were respondents using sleep trackers to keep records of sleep patterns and 35% expressed interest in keeping track of their health during sleep.
With the advent of wearable technology, people are becoming health conscious but are still not considerate enough about sleep issues. Many patients with sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia and so on resort to hiding their issues as it is considered taboo to discuss them in our society.
There is a gap that needs to be filled with conversations around sleep and related disorders which will help neutralize the stigma, lead people to practice good sleep hygiene and in case of medical problems, seeks expert opinion without hesitation. For this to become a reality, we need a collaborative approach from the patient, medical fraternity, and policy side to openly talk about sleep as the lack of it could lead to serious health repercussions. There is a sudden rise in sleep queries, as people identified a few of their own experiences acting as a testimony to the fact that people have existing sleep concerns and were looking for solutions.
Education and awareness initiatives should be stressed to highlight the importance of sleep and related sleep disorders. By way of this people- young and old will be encouraged to give sleep its due importance in their daily routines which in the long run will help them to awaken the best in themselves.