Sleepless in Bengaluru!

Bengaluru: A recent study done across metros in the city reports that only 46% of people in every city get the right amount of sleep of 7-10 hours, versus an all-India average of 53%. Also, the study revealed that the quality of sleep in Bengaluru is poorer than the rest of India (Bengaluru at 33% and All India at 47%). Another worrisome figure was revealed by the national journal of community medicine, published in April 2016, which reported that the mean stress score among professionals in Bengaluru is 35.73 and insomnia, is the most common stress symptom. 

Even city doctors are getting large numbers of stress-induced insomnia cases from the working population. In Bengaluru alone, a large number of youngsters are suffering from sleep disorder. "We see around 30-40 % patients, mainly in the age group 28 - 45 years suffering from stress-induced insomnia. They usually come to us with issues of headache, 'easy fatigue', multiple body aches and tiredness. Only 5%-10 % of people come to us with the problem of insomnia," says Dr Anil Ramakrishna, Head of Neurology, Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal.

The sleep labs at Mahavir Jain Hospital conduct around 50-60 sleep studies in a month. "We have diagnosed 8000 patients in the past ten years and we are seeing 400 cases yearly," adds Dr HB Chandrashekar, HOD department of pulmonary medicine at Mahavir Jain Hospital, who heads two other sleep labs at Columbia Asia Hospital. "The numbers of people wanting to come for sleep-study is huge, hence the waiting list is two weeks," he adds. 

Dr Chandrashekhar adds, "Basically the quality of sleep is disruptive in many of our patients because of the repetitive choking of the upper airway and hence each time the brain is woken up. Surprisingly many of our patients during the sleep study have woken  up to 100 times in one hour, meaning that each time the brain is woken up."