Indians and the world in general have compromised on a lot of sleep. According to Fitbit (which was acquired by Google for $2 billion), Indians are the least active among 18 other countries considered in the study, logging only 6533 steps a day, a full 3600 steps lesser as compared to the most active country, Hong Kong. However, do bear in mind that the reader is free to come up with his or her own definition of being active.
Case in point, the writer considers himself active because he executes at least fifty to seventy push-ups and walks approximately three kilometers every day. Similarly, an individual may call himself or herself healthy if he or she has a moderate amount of belly fat, walks occasionally once in a while, while consuming moderate amounts of alcohol on a weekly basis, because he or she is illness-free. That being said, it is better if each person figures out his or her own definition of health, that may or may not be influenced by popular media and culture.
Coming back to India, the report also clarified that India stands second after Japan in terms of the average duration of sleep, which translated to 7 hours and 1 minute. Now, how much do we know about sleep except that a human being feels sleepy at the end of a day? If we delve a little deeper, we should ask ourselves, why do we need to sleep? Why is sleep necessary? What would happen if we begin to understand the process of sleep in depth? And more importantly, how exactly is sleep related to your behaviours and productivity during the day? For example, dopamine fasting ought to be considered if one feels he or she is spending too much time on the screens.
We’re currently in the throes of a brain-health revolution and sleep is a big part of it, as common sense dictates it ought to be. Think strategies for your nutrition, sleep, exercise, relationships and developing a quest for lifelong learning. Think about it like this: what can you possibly do to ensure you’re living your absolute best? Absolutely best, as in, moving in the direction of your choicest lifestyle by being at your productive, emotional and spiritual best. In the sense, its a question which is fundamental to everybody. After all, why do we live if not to feel our best all the time? Yes, there are always situations and circumstances beyond one’s control, but they’re universal, a fact common to every living person. There will be ups and there will be downs. You cannot eliminate the downs, but you can minimize them as much as you can by following a lifestyle rooted in health.
With regards to sleep, we’re currently living amidst a global sleep epidemic. Multiple studies link inadequate sleep to Alzheimer’s, hypertension, depression, diabetes and other lifestyle disorders. Along with good eating habits and exercise, sleep is critical for the optimal functioning of our biological system, as common sense would have it. If sleep evades you, you begin to enjoy less of everything, from food to sex. May one’s mantra be: food, water and sleep.
With regards to India, a country where two-thirds of the population is under 35, classified as a developing country owing to its vast swathes of people, who are malnourished, sleep-deprived and poor, a lot needs to be done in terms of healthcare. In order to capitalize on the country’s demographic dividend (the largest cohort of working age population in world history), it is prudent to reason that communicating about the benefits of medical cannabis for sleep related problems and disorders to the urban middle-class office goers, will not only increase productivity, but also lead them towards better lives in general.
India’s sleep market is dominantly geared towards mattresses and associated accessories, where the primary source of innovation revolves around body posture, materials science to manufacture the mattress with desired ingredients and sleep aids like shut-eye bands, smart beds and trackers. Medical cannabis’ emergence is quite nascent in India, yet information about cannabis and its relationship with sleep is relatively more well-known. Instead of depending on sleeping pills, sleep-related disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea need to be approached from a holistic point of view, namely a change in one’s nutritional intake, exercise, mindfulness and using medical cannabis for relaxed sleep.
Marijuana Maharaj 