Adequateness in Sleep Duration among Adults in India: Evidence from National Time Use Survey

Goutham K Pradeep, Institute for Social And Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru
T R Dilip, International Institute for Population Sciences

To examine the adequacy in duration of sleep and its correlates among adults aged 18 years and above in India. Data on sleep duration on a normal day available for 330,207 adult members from the Time Use Survey 2019 was analyzed. Differentials in mean sleep duration, prevalence of short sleep duration (<=6 hours) and long sleep duration (<=9 hours) was examined. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to understand the correlates of short and long sleep durations. The average sleep duration among Indian adults aged was 8:19 hours (95 percent CI, 8:19 - 8:20). Prevalence of short sleep duration and long sleep duration was 3.8 percent and 33.7 percent respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that females, urban residents, highly educated individuals, and those with higher incomes tend to have shorter sleep durations and lower rates of long sleep duration. Unemployed adults are more susceptible to both short and long sleep durations, while those in higher socioeconomic strata are more likely to experience sleep deficits compared to their counterparts. This study calls for the time to pay attention to sleep health issues in country’s public health policies.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Data and Methods

See paper.