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Prevalence of Sleep Practices, Circadian Types and Their Effect on Sleep Beliefs in General Population: Knowledge and Beliefs About Sleep and Sleep Practices (KNOBS Survey)

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Abstract

Purpose

We spend one-third of our lifetime in sleep. There is paucity of data on sleep duration, practices, circadian types and their influence on sleep beliefs in general population. This study was done to evaluate the knowledge and beliefs about sleep hygiene, sleep practices and to compare these practices among different gender and age groups of Indian population. The influence of circadian typology on the sleep beliefs was also studied.

Method

An online survey to capture data on demographics, sleep hygiene practices, reduced morningness–eveningness scale and the sleep beliefs scale (SBS) was created.

Results

Survey was completed by 832 adult respondents, with a mean age of 34.70 ± 13.11 years. Majority were female (53.96%) and most respondents (88.4%) lived in urban areas. Mean sleep duration was 7.36 ± 0.25 h. Sleep duration was longer in weekends than weekdays. More than 80% spent time with electronic devices, on social media prior to bedtime. Exercising, alcohol use and viewing television prior to bedtime was reported in a higher percentage of males. Morning types was the most prevalent circadian type (47.5%) followed by the neither type. Morning types (13.09 ± 3.4) had significantly better sleep beliefs than the neither types (12.5 ± 3.5) and evening types (11.9 ± 3.1) with a p value of 0.007.

Conclusions

The mean sleep duration in our respondents is 7.36 ± 0.25 h. Majority admitted to screen-time before sleep. The younger respondents had higher prevalence of evening types and worse sleep beliefs. Gender played an insignificant role in circadian typology.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the valuable statistical analysis and inputs by Ms. Sivakami Sundari.

Funding

No funding was received from any funding agency to conduct this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Medicine, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore, India, 560034

    Divya Devaraj, Uma Devaraj, Kavitha Venkatnarayan, Chitra Veluthat, Priya Ramachandran, George D’Souza & K. Uma Maheswari

  2. PFT Lab, Oncology Block, 3rd floor, St. John’s Medical College, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore, India, 560034

    Uma Devaraj

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  1. Divya Devaraj
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Contributions

DD, KV, UD, CV, PR, UMK: Concept, design, screening of subjects; DD, KV, CV, UD, PR, UMK: Data collection and monitoring of data; UD, PR, GAD, UMK: Interpretation of data, Statistical analysis and Interpretation; DD, UD: Maintaining patients file and master file of project; DD, UD, KV, CV, PR, GAD, UMK: Drafting final report; DD, UD, KV, CV, PR, GAD, UMK: Publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uma Devaraj.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Divya Devaraj declares that she has no conflict of interest. Uma Devaraj declares that she has no conflict of interest. Kavitha Venkatnarayan declares that she has no conflict of interest. Chitra Veluthat declares that she has no conflict of interest. Priya Ramachandran declares that she has no conflict of interest. George A D’Souza declares that he has no conflict of interest. Uma maheswari K declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This survey involving human participants was done in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

It was obtained, prior to taking the survey, from all individual participants included in the study.

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Devaraj, D., Devaraj, U., Venkatnarayan, K. et al. Prevalence of Sleep Practices, Circadian Types and Their Effect on Sleep Beliefs in General Population: Knowledge and Beliefs About Sleep and Sleep Practices (KNOBS Survey). Sleep Vigilance 5, 61–69 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41782-021-00128-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41782-021-00128-6

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