Mumbai | 26th June 2020: Dozee, India’s first and award-winning remote and contactless health monitoring device, is observing the health of over 20000 people in both home and hospital set up. As the nation is in over eleven weeks of lockdown, anxiety levels are on the rise. With an aim to analyse sleep patterns in India during the lockdown, Dozee has studied sleep of over 382 people (14,483 sleeps recorded over 10 weeks) belonging to the age group of 10-85 years.
Various parameters such as sleep duration, sleep time, wakeup time, time to sleep and stress levels were monitored. The study encapsulates median sleep duration, time taken to fall asleep has increased due to increased anxiety amongst people, increasing number of naps and wake up time etc.
Mr. Mudit Dandwate, Co-Founder, Dozee quotes, “Tracking health through sleep during daunting times like these reveal immensely about our health. The study aims to provide quality data which can be actioned. We are eager to share this information for people to be better equipped during the pandemic. Sleep is an important parameter and we have witnessed a rise in sleep issues during lockdown. Also with Dozee, we aim to capture this qualitative data for medical professionals to understand patient issues better so as to resolve them.”
Dr Manvir Bhatia, Sleep Expert states,“ During this time I have seen more than 100 patients ( teleconsultation) , all ages and genders -with sleep complaints. The major ones being – difficulty in falling asleep, marked delay in bed time, and waking up after noon. This has resulted in heaviness of head during the day, increased lethargy, poor productivity and a low mood. These problems appeared de novo in some patients and some who had insomnia but were doing well, worsened during this period. A few also had complaints of palpitations, and diff in breathing just before falling asleep – as symptoms of anxiety. The advice to everyone is to make sure you follow a good day and night routine, adequate exercise during the day, avoid excess use of caffeine and alcohol, and have a relaxing pre-bedtime routine. If the problems persist then please seek help and do not self medicate.”
Following are the parameters explained in detail:
- Sleep duration: Time period where the person is actually sleeping (in N1, N2, N3, REM stage of the sleep cycle) Sleep duration during lockdown didn’t deviate much and the median sleep duration continued to remain 430 minutes. For people between 35 to 45 years median sleep duration increased nearly by 60 minutes and this was particularly found amongst men.
- Sleep time: Sleep Onset time, another parameter especially in the age group of 10-45 years had increased by almost 30 minutes. There was a gender disparity when it comes to sleep time, females sleep time increased by nearly 90 minutes however, for males it increased only by 20 minutes. Changed from ~11:45 AM to 1:15 AM. Females in the 18-45 age-group are staying up 90 minutes more late than usual. Earlier 40% of people used to sleep before 12am and during lockdown 36% of people are sleeping before 12am.
- Wake up time: Time at which the person wakes up after sleep. Wake up time has increased by 30 minutes across age groups. However, those between 18-45 years of age, the wake up time has increased by 70 minutes. While the increase in median wake up time for females increased by more than 90 minutes (from 7:30 AM to 8:45 AM), for males it increased till 60 minutes (from 7:45 AM to 8:45 AM) though now it is falling. Changed from ~7AM to 8:30 AM. This is a big shift in the circadian rhythm (or biological clock) that governs the hormone cycle in our body. Once this cycle is off, we are at higher risk of lifestyle disorders like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disorders and mental disorders. Earlier 53% of people used to wake up after 8am and during lockdown 49% of people are waking up after 8am
- Time taken to fall asleep: It’s the time period elapsed between the person going to bed and falling asleep. The time taken to fall asleep has gradually increased during lockdown and has doubled during the first week of May and is witnessed across all age groups. Time taken to fall asleep is directly linked to insomnia, which in turn is highly comorbid with depression. Growing anxiety because of the lockdown and financial insecurity might be the leading reasons for this increase in the time to fall asleep.
Stress levels: Autonomous nervous system activity measured through heart rate variability: There wasn’t any significant change in the stress levels of people witnessed. Even though the lockdown has changed people’s routine, the stress levels for them have remained the same.
- Naps: Initially the number of naps increased however, now a dip has been witnessed once the lockdown started to open up
Launched in mid-2019, Dozee is available on both Amazon.in & its website. Dozee has also been backed by reputed companies like Qualcomm and Department of Biotechnology – Govt of India–BIRAC and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for product development and acceleration. This Bengaluru based healthcare startup is the brainchild of Mr. Mudit Dandwate and Mr. Gaurav Parchani, both IIT alumni.
