Hyderabad: Sleep disorder among Indians is caused more by skeletal factors than obesity, claim sleep surgeons.

Doctors found that Indians, despite having a BMI of less than 30, suffered from sleep disorders like snoring, frequently waking up at night or gasping for breath. In the West, these are ascribed to obesity.



Indians by and large have been found to have a small chin, nose and cheekbones and a big tongue, tonsils and throat. Due to this skeletal mismatch, the upper airways get blocked, doctors reported at a three-day conference that ended here on Sunday.

Dr Srinivas Kishore, senior sleep specialist, said, “The space for the air to go in while lying down is restricted because the passageway is small. During the day, one is breathing through the nose and the mouth. At night when breathing becomes difficult, the body tends to choke which is why the pat-ient wakes up frequently.”

This break in sleep affects the biological clock resulting in actual rest time of the body being badly disturbed.

The conference presented a case study in which disturbed sleep patterns led to inefficient action of medicines for a hypertensive patient. In another study, disturbed sleep was found to cause headaches and irritable behaviour in an executive who would drop off to sleep while working.