Sleep habits and associated phenomenon in Indian adults

Abstract

Study Objective: Sleep is influenced by cultural norms. Scant data is available regarding sleep habits and associated phenomenon in Indian adults; the study designed evaluated these. Methods: This is a descriptive study on attendants of patients at Department of Neurology, AIIMS, utilizing a Sleep Questionnaire, modified from NSF Sleep Habits Questionnaire 2002 and 2005. Data from 104 subjects was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007. Results: Subjects clustered in the age range of 21–50 years. Most subjects slept between 2200 and 2400 hours, with rise time between 0500 and 0700 hours, delayed rise time on weekends, and sleep time between 7–9 hours. Subjects rated their sleep quality as high with few awakenings of short duration. Use of sleep aids was infrequent. Snoring was reported by 24% with no difference between men and women. A very small percentage had symptoms suggestive of sleep disordered breathing or restless legs. Women in general took longer to fall asleep, slept less, woke up earlier, napped more frequently, co-slept with children, had increased care giving responsibilities, admitted racing thoughts prior to bedtime, and less daytime sleepiness compared with men in this sample. The napping behavior and caregiving duties attained statistical significance (p=0.005 and p=0.005, respectively). Conclusion: The study described sleep patterns in Indian adults and highlighted differences between the two sexes.