Prevalence of Sleep Practices, Circadian Types and Their Effect on Sleep Beliefs in General Population: Knowledge and Beliefs About Sleep and Sleep Practices (KNOBS Survey)

Abstract

We spend one-third of our lifetime in sleep. There is paucity of data on sleep duration, practices, circadian types and their influence on sleep beliefs in general population. This study was done to evaluate the knowledge and beliefs about sleep hygiene, sleep practices and to compare these practices among different gender and age groups of Indian population. The influence of circadian typology on the sleep beliefs was also studied. An online survey to capture data on demographics, sleep hygiene practices, reduced morningness–eveningness scale and the sleep beliefs scale (SBS) was created. Survey was completed by 832 adult respondents, with a mean age of 34.70 ± 13.11 years. Majority were female (53.96%) and most respondents (88.4%) lived in urban areas. Mean sleep duration was 7.36 ± 0.25 h. Sleep duration was longer in weekends than weekdays. More than 80% spent time with electronic devices, on social media prior to bedtime. Exercising, alcohol use and viewing television prior to bedtime was reported in a higher percentage of males. Morning types was the most prevalent circadian type (47.5%) followed by the neither type. Morning types (13.09 ± 3.4) had significantly better sleep beliefs than the neither types (12.5 ± 3.5) and evening types (11.9 ± 3.1) with a p value of 0.007. The mean sleep duration in our respondents is 7.36 ± 0.25 h. Majority admitted to screen-time before sleep. The younger respondents had higher prevalence of evening types and worse sleep beliefs. Gender played an insignificant role in circadian typology.