‘India should have centres to treat sleep disorders’

India needs to have centres and institutes specifically designed to treat people with different kind of sleep disorders, say experts. Vanita Srivastava reports.

India needs to have centres and institutes specifically designed to treat people with different kind of sleep disorders, say experts.

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“Sleep disorder has become a major health problem, even among children. The fast-paced lifestyle and technological invasion have taken a detrimental toll on our well-being, leading to sleep deprivation. There is a need for proper treatment and this is where a well integrated centre with different specialists can help,” Patrick J Strollo, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh told HT.

Besides medicines, those with severe sleep disorders should be given cognitive behaviour therapy, he said.

Claudia Trenkwalder, associate professor of neurology at the University of Goettingen in Germany, who specialises in restless legs syndrome, another causative factor for sleep disorder told HT that it was very essential to have centres for sleep medicine.

“There should be a centre or an institute in different states and they should have different disciplines of medicine working together.”

The two experts were participating at the annual meeting of the Indian Sleep Disorders Association here on Sunday.

Besides, she said India needs to develop its own tools and questionnaires to assess the intensity of sleep disorder.

“It is very essential that the problem is treated as an ailment as it can cause other serious medical disorders.”