Prevalence of insomnia in urban population of West Bengal: A community-based cross-sectional study

Background: The complaint of insomnia is one of the most common symptoms a physician encounters in his/her day-to-day practice. Though rarely present as the stand-alone problem, it accompanies other organic or psychological symptoms. Its incidence is on the rise in ever increasing stressful life of present times. Objectives: The objective was to study the prevalence and some sociodemographic factors associated with insomnia among the urban population of Kamarhati municipal area of district 24 Parganas (N) of the state West Bengal. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at “Kamarhati” municipal area. Ten percent of householders of two randomly selected wards were surveyed. Self-reported sleep questionnaire insomnia symptoms questionnaire (ISQ) was administered to all adult members. Persons with a history of major psychiatric illness, regular shift work, daily alcohol consumption more than four units and on chemotherapy or radiotherapy were excluded from the survey. Results: ISQ identified 15.4% prevalence of insomnia. It was high in persons with co-morbid chronic physical illness (28.1%) compared to persons free from that (10.9%) (P < 0.001). Insomnia was significantly higher among people living in joint families than those living in a nuclear family. The prevalence of insomnia increases significantly with the increasing age (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that the prevalence of insomnia in urban India is high. Increased life expectancy, increased burden of chronic illnesses, changing lifestyle, uncertainty of urban life contributes to high prevalence of insomnia that in turn affects quality of life.