CHENNAI: In a silver lining to the pandemic, Indians have become more conscious of the quality of sleep, paying more attention to their sleeping habits.
Heeding to the traditional early-to-bed advice, the number of people going to bed before 10 pm doubled in 2020, with this trend being most notable among 18-year-olds, as per a recent sleep survey by sleep solutions company Wakefit.
In a shift in lifestyle post the pandemic, 14% of the 16,000 respondents -- surveyed between March 2020 and February 2021 for the Great Indian Sleep Scorecard 2021 -- said they were hitting the bed before 10pm in 2020 compared to 7% in the previous year. 50% of the 18-year olds (as opposed to 22% in the previous year) are going to bed before 10 pm now.
There is also a marginal decline in the trend of post-midnight sleepers from 28% in 2019 to 26% in 2020.
Awareness toward maintaining a healthy sleep routine has also increased. 24% people surveyed this year said they were genuinely concerned about insomnia and its effects on the body as against 19% in the previous edition. There was also a 32% increase in people feeling rested on waking up.
Without the need to commute, people also had an extra hour to spend in bed, in the mornings, resulting in an 8% decrease in both men and women across India waking up early.
However, gender dynamics played a role in this, as there was a 5% dip in the number of women going to bed early (in the time frame of 10 pm to midnight) as compared to the previous year.
19% of people stayed up to work late on their beds this year compared to 14% last year, the survey said.
The absence of a work environment also led to more than doubling in the number of people who felt sleepy at work during the day from 2018 to 2020.
Work, OTT entertainment platforms, and social media kept people up late with Bengaluru burning midnight oil with over 15% of people going to bed after 1 am in 2020 compared to 12% in 2019.
Mumbai had the highest number of late-night sleepers in 2020, with nearly 20% of people hitting their beds after 1am.