Here’s why you nod off at work

Do you often get up in the night? Are you snoring as loudly as you talk or waking up with a headache, feeling lethargic and depressive? Do you try to catch 40 winks in the office?

If the answer to most of these questions is yes, then you are probably among the 93% of the urban Indian population that has been found to be suffering from sleep disorders.

A survey by Philips-AC Neilsen — conducted among 5,600 persons in the 35-65 age group across 25 cities — has found sleep disorders to be a common problem among people of all classes in the country.

The survey was conducted in a non-clinical environment to assess people’s sleeping habits and their impact on health. The results showed that sleep disorder is prevalent among the larger part of the population, but remains unnoticed.

“Though sleeping disorder is common, people ignore it till there is a severe problem. Sleeping disorder can lead to many serious complications such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart diseases and even stroke,” said Dr Anoop Misra, director of diabetes and metabolic diseases in Delhi’s Fortis Hospital. Lack of proper sleep can also make the heartbeat irregular, increasing the chances of work-related or driving accidents. It can also lead to weight gain.

The study found that 93% of the surveyed population admitted to having irregular sleep — for less than eight hours. At least 58% felt their work suffered from lack of adequate sleep and 11% had to take leave to catch up on sleep — they also often dozed off at work.

Roughly 38% admitted to have witnessed their colleagues falling asleep at work.
Not only did the lack of sleep impair their ability to concentrate, leading to decreased productivity, it also affected their temperament, causing mood swings and accident-like situations, especially while driving.

About 74% said they woke up about one to three times in the night to either go to the loo (90%), or due to stress at work (15%) or noise outside their home (10%).

Interestingly, 87% knew that the lack of sleep was affecting their health, but only 2% consulted doctors. Sleep deprivation also affected the family relationship of 19% of the subjects while 15% admitted their ability to concentrate was affected.

Of the surveyed population, 62% displayed high risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) - pauses in breathing during sleep — and 14% suffered from it.

Pauses in breathing (like snoring) is an indicator of OSA, the incidence of which is usually high among people suffering from hypertension, diabetes or cardio-vascular diseases.
Almost 33% of the subjects snored — here, the percentage of men (38%) was higher than women (27%). The snoring problem was more pronounced among the obese (38%) than the non-obese (31%).