Gadget-hooked society becoming sleep-deprived

Gadget-hooked society becoming sleep-deprived
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Indians are not getting good enough sleep, surprisingly 93 per cent are sleep deprived. People take immediate life-threatening diseases or disorders like heart attacks seriously but are complacent to disorders like insomnia; ironically, even the medical fraternity takes sleep disorder issues lightly. 

Hyderabad: Indians are not getting good enough sleep, surprisingly 93 per cent are sleep deprived. People take immediate life-threatening diseases or disorders like heart attacks seriously but are complacent to disorders like insomnia; ironically, even the medical fraternity takes sleep disorder issues lightly.

A society dependent on gadgets and a sedentary lifestyle are the main reasons for sleep disorderand it is not just the teenagers but people in the age group of 30 to 60 are victims of this problem. The sleep deprivation is seen more among IT employees due to their odd hours work schedule linked to foreign country time zones and continuous surfing of social sites. It is becoming worst day by day for the teenagers as bad body postures at computer desk and less physical activity like sports affect the body causing muscle atrophy and eventual not getting proper sleep.

Dr Sampoorna ENT surgeon and (obstructive sleep apnea) OSA specialist at Sunshine Hospital said, “Every month around 25 patients come to us with sleep disorder problems and half of them are from IT sector. The society is not aware of this disorder and ignores the issue which later becomes a usual habit for people. One problem creates more diseases like OSA is connected to loud snore, BP, sugar and effect on heart and brain.” Every person needs a routine sleep of 8 hours every day. Regular exercise can avoid these problems, she added.

Sleep disorders are of many types such as insomnia, chronic insomnia disorder, short-term insomnia disorder, other insomnia disorder and isolated symptoms and normal variant, sleep-related breathing disorders, central disorders of hypersomnolence,circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, parasomnias and sleep-related movement disorders.

According to a study conducted by a consumer products giant, nearly 93 per cent Indians are sleep-deprived. The changing lifestyle and intrusion of modern gadgets have only aggravated the situation. The first ever pan-African and Asian analysis of sleep problems say nearly 5 per cent Indians — aged 50 years and above — are suffering from sleep disorders.

Indian women (6.5%) outnumber men (4.3%), when it comes to disturbed sleep. And, a majority of them suffer from psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety.Around 4% Indian men who reported severe/extreme nocturnal sleep problems suffered from severe depression, while 3% reported severe anxiety.Similar was the count with women (3.79% reporting severe depression and 2.8% suffering from severe anxiety.

BY Vandana Sharma

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