Day 199 - Deprived...

There was a time when I could do with only 2 hours of sleep.  This was during the early years of my career and the brief period of time just before it.  And I had that lifestyle over a long period of time, due to various reasons.  The first and foremost was the amount of time spent at the workplace.  When one is just starting off in one's worklife and is a bachelor living alone, there is seldom a thought given to the number of hours spent at the workplace.  The workplace, in fact, tends to become one's home and the colleagues, family.  The second reason is being young!  When you are in your twenties, you want to do everything and pack in as many things as you can in a 24 hour day, including long chats on the phone late into the nights! :-))

That was flashback; and it was a good one.  Pan to today.  Eleven years down the line and with a family to care for, I can still do with 2-3 hours of sleep on the odd day, but, as you might imagine, it starts becoming more and more difficult as you age.  Lack of sleep does have its impact on the next day, when one feels very lethargic and sleepy.

I recently read an article about the prevalence of sleep deprivation and the consequent health syndrome of Obstructuve Sleep Apnea (OSA) spreading throughout urban India, in India Today.  Over the last few years, I have noticed that we, as a society, are sleeping lesser and lesser these days.  The benchmark of everyone going to bed by 10 PM is no longer applicable.  Most families are wide awake till 11 PM - midnight!  Even children, like my own, are sleeping lesser hours.  It is said, medically, children grow more when they are asleep.  Sleep deprivation in our cities, is doing a disservice to the future of India.  The Philips Sleep Survey says 93% of urban Indians get less than 8 hours of sleep per night!  I think this is a very dangerous trend.  Sustained sleep deprivation leads to OSA, thus increasing the risk of diabetes and heart ailments.

There are various reasons behind this trend.  The Indian economy and its integration with the global economy is the most important reason.  India, because of its time advantage of being able to bridge the east and west, has preferred to grow the services sector.  Hence you have people working unnatural hours in call centres, sweat shops and back offices higher up the value chain.  Additionally, their families have adapted to this lifestyle over a period of time.  The other reason is the opening up of the media and the huge number of TV channels airing myraid soap operas till late in the night.  Clearly, this is a lifestyle issue and the solution lies in changing one's lifestyle.

At the beginning of this year, I made a promise to myself that I am going to try and get 8 hours of sound sleep every night.  It hasn't been consistently possible till now.  However, let me rededicate myself towards this effort.

Sleep well.  Sleep tight.  Take care.