World Sleep Day

Sleep disorders and disturbances due to lifestyle changes wreak havoc on a sound sleep.

People lay a lot of attention to their diet and workout regime, but often forget the rest and recovery part of their bodies. Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being because the damage from sleep deficiency can cause chronic health problems. It can also affect the way one thinks, reacts, works, or learns.

Celebrating the World Sleep Day today, we tell you why a large amount of the population across the globe resorts to sleeping pills.

Going by the statistics, 20% of people around the world are sleep deprived, simply because of reasons that range from lifestyle changes like odd-working hours, to personal obligations and relationship worries. Besides that, the anxiety, tension and nervousness which develops due to work pressure, household issues or personal relationships also affect sleep, leading to sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders make people pop sleeping pills for a sound sleep. To understand the frequency of people taking these sleeping pills, we asked Curofy, (India's largest community of verified doctors) about the percentage of patients demanding sleeping pills, to which they said "On an average 20.3% patients examined by doctors ask for sleeping pills, which is almost 1 out of 5 of the patients who are suffering from sleeping disorders."

ut of 910 doctors who took the poll, 619 responses lied between 0-20% but shockingly 182 responses lied between 20-40% which indicates that for 20% of doctors the number of patients asking for sleeping pills in even more than 1 in 5. Adding to this, 60 responses lied between 40-60% which means that for almost 6.5% doctors more than 2 out of every 5 patients ask for sleeping pills.

Pawan Gupta, co-founder, Curofy said "Doctors suggest that this in itself is a huge number. Sleeping pills known as sedatives and hypnotics in medical terminology which include drugs like opium, benzo diazepam and barbiturates. They are mainly prescribed to treat insomnia and to seek relief from anxiety, panic disorders, and depression but they can also lead to harmful side-effects that varies from person to person like drowsiness, impaired learning ability, respiratory depression, changes in appetite, hangover, dizziness, parasomnia, to name a few. As per the medical laws, no chemist can give these drugs to a patient without a doctor's prescription. They are strictly banned for commercial selling purposes."

Dr Aditya Gupta, Associate Director, Neurosurgery, Medanta, also cited similar reasons for a spike in sleep disorders, "Yes many patients are having sleep disturbances. It is very prevalent these days and there are multiple factors involved like hectic schedules, night shifts, and high stress levels."

Dr Anoop Kohli, Senior Consultant, Neurology, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, said "These days a lot of time is spent on social media which does not have a shut down time. Also, people are hooked on to their laptops and phones reducing the necessary eight hours of sleep. The level of concentration is reducing, the level of anxiety is increasing and people are depending upon anti-anxiety drugs."

When asked about dealing with a situation like this, Pawan added "High cases of sleep disorders can be controlled by combined efforts of bot doctors and patients. While people should put an effort in maintaining healthy lifestyle, doctors must also spread awareness about the same to their patients".

All these statistics and the doctors' views indicate that there is definitely a huge chunk of population suffering from sleep disorders and this is mainly due to late working hours, cumbersome lifestyle and mental stress. But people are resorting to the sleeping pills which have not only addictive but comes with side effects.

Doctors emphasise on an urgent need to spread awareness around the harmful effects of popping sleeping pills hence, they are promoting small measures like:

1. Maintain a healthy work-life balance, in terms of timing and working hours.
2. Indulging in a physical activity should be a must.
3. Putting away smartphones and other digital media around sleep time.