We’ve all heard the phrase “I’ll catch up on sleep later.” But for many Indian women, “later” never really comes. A new national survey has highlighted just how stark the sleep gap between men and women really is and the reasons behind it are all too familiar.
The “Double Shift” Dilemma
Working women in India get less than eight hours of rest a night, around ten minutes fewer than men. It may not sound like much, but over weeks and months it adds up. Why the gap? Women often work what’s called the “double shift”: first in their paid jobs, then at home, where late-night chores and early wake-ups cut into precious hours of rest.
Homemakers Aren’t Exempt
Even women who don’t have office jobs struggle. Homemakers sleep less at night compared to men in their families, though many try to make up for it with naps during the day. The problem? Fragmented rest never recharges the body as well as a solid block of uninterrupted sleep.
Age and Region Matter
The survey found that women in their 30s, those prime years of work and child-rearing average just 7.6 hours of sleep per day. Men hit their lowest in their 40s but still hover closer to eight hours. Teenagers are another story altogether: over half of urban youth go to bed after 10 pm, thanks to late-night scrolling or binge-watching.
Where you live also plays a role. In rural India, men and women tend to sleep earlier, but women still wake up earlier, 26 minutes earlier on average. In urban homes, the gap remains, with women rising half an hour before men. Seniors may sleep over ten hours a day, but restlessness in the night is common, particularly in states such as Uttarakhand and Tripura.
What’s Keeping Us Awake?
Screens are a big culprit. In cities like Bengaluru, nearly half of people end their day with TV or mobile phones. Women, however, face a different barrier, housework. For up to 18 per cent of rural women and 16 per cent of urban women, the last task before bed is cleaning the kitchen. For men, that number is negligible.
One Country, One Clock — But Not One Schedule
India’s single time zone adds another layer to the puzzle. In the east, the sun rises and sets earlier, so people wake sooner but don’t necessarily sleep earlier, leading to shorter nights. In the west, later sunsets push bedtimes back. The result? Uneven sleep patterns across the country.
The Cost of Broken Sleep
Interrupted nights take a toll, especially for women. Beyond the chores and jobs comes what researchers call the “fourth shift” tending to children at night. Even brief interruptions can raise the risks of long-term health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
The Bigger Picture
The 2024 Time Use Survey showed that while 70 per cent of rural and 64 per cent of urban Indians manage eight hours of sleep, the numbers for women are far less encouraging. In Delhi, for example, only 42 per cent of women hit the eight-hour mark the lowest in the country.
The takeaway? Sleep isn’t just about quantity; it’s about quality. And for Indian women, the burden of work, home, and care continues to chip away at both. Maybe it’s time we start treating rest not as a luxury but as an essential part of health and wellbeing.