Sleep Disorders Are Mainly Due To Skeletal Issues

Sleep disorders in the Indian population occur more due to the skeletal structures of the body and less due to obesity.

Data from South-East Asia and India shows that even people who are thin, small, but hale and hearty, suffer from sleep disorders—like snoring, frequently getting up at night, waking up and gasping for breath—despite having a normal Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 30.

Structural Matters

This is due to the fact that people in this part of the world have small chins, noses and cheekbones, but bigger tongues and larger tonsils, creating a skeletal mismatch that leads to blockage of the upper airways.

Dr Srinivas Kishore, Senior Sleep specialist, said, “In many Indians, the upper airways are blocked due to skeletal shape. The space for air to go in at night is restricted because the passageway is small. During daytime, people breathe in through both the nose and mouth. In the night, when breathing is difficult, people tend to choke, causing them to wake up frequently.”

Whenever the brain realises that there’s an insufficient intake of oxygen, it wakes up the body to take in the required oxygen and then resumes sleep. This breaking up of the sleep pattern in the night affects the overall biological clock, and the ‘actual’ rest-time of the body is disturbed.

Sleep Studies Crucial To Success

A bus driver who was hypertensive was put on a high dosage of drugs, but his condition didn’t improve. The cardiologist suggested a sleep test, and that’s when it was found that his disturbed sleep was the reason for the ineffectiveness of the drug. He was then put on a different set of medicines and therapy, and it was only then that his condition improved.

Similarly, a business executive suffered from an inability to think clearly had frequent headaches and was irritable. He visited a behavioural therapist and was on therapy and medicine. Experts realised that his sleep pattern required to be analysed as he was found to doze off in the middle of sessions. 

The study showed a disturbed pattern, due to which his clarity of thought and work pattern suffered.