Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. In 2026, this proverb reads less as advice and more as a privilege. The Resmed’s 2026 Global Sleep Survey suggests that for many, particularly in India, sleep is increasingly being shaped by forces beyond individual control. More than half of respondents globally report getting a good night’s sleep on just four nights a week or less, with stress, work demands and financial pressures identified as leading disruptors. India’s findings sharpen the concern — the country is the second most sleep-deprived nation on the planet. On average, an Indian loses between 400 and 918 hours of sleep a year. What is worse, the country leads in sleep tracking, with 51% Indians keeping tabs on how long they are sleeping. This indicates a growing awareness of sleep as a health priority. Workplace exhaustion is especially pronounced: 92% of Indian respondents reported taking at least one “snooze day” due to fatigue, the highest among surveyed countries. Awareness without rest signals a structural problem. Serious thought is required about why, when rest is widely recognised as essential, it remains inaccessible.
The drivers of sleep deprivation in India reveal that slumber, once a pursuit that was intensely private, has now become a political issue. Earlier survey data show that 69% of Indians lose sleep due to stress, with anxiety and financial insecurity following closely. Gig workers juggling multiple jobs, cab drivers working extended shifts, and women balancing employment with unpaid care represent populations that are structurally deprived of rest. Research on sleep inequality points to irregular scheduling, long working hours and low wages as central structural causes of poor sleep. These are policy outcomes rather than lifestyle choices. Chronic fatigue also affects democratic participation. Sleep deprivation reduces civic engagement, weakens decision-making, and deepens inequality by limiting the ability to challenge existing conditions. Sleep loss, thus, becomes a mechanism through which disadvantage is reproduced. A population denied rest is less able to exercise rights, less able to organise, and less able to influence public policy. The erosion of sleep thus carries political consequences that extend beyond health and productivity.
Climate change and its consequences are intensifying these pressures. Reports from Maharashtra describe agricultural workers sleeping fewer than three hours during heatwaves, leading to exhaustion, irritability and declining health. Rising night-time temperatures across India make it harder for the body to regulate heat and
sustain sleep, particularly in low-income households with inadequate cooling resources. The Resmed survey adds another dimension, identifying geopolitical tensions and economic stress as recurring disruptors of sleep.
Sleep deprivation thus reflects modern overlapping crises: climate change, economic insecurity and geopolitical instability. While the public discourse continues to frame sleep as a matter of personal discipline — putting away the phone or meditating are often cited as cures for insomnia — the evidence suggests otherwise. The conditions that determine rest are shaped by labour policies, housing infrastructure, environmental regulation and social protections. No less than the Supreme Court of India has affirmed that the right to sleep forms part of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, placing the question of rest squarely within the domain of public responsibility.