World Sleep Day: These gizmos will help you snooze like a baby

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The theme of this year’s World Sleep Day, observed on 14 March, is Make Sleep Health A Priority, which is often easier said than done. Anxiety often fuels insomnia, and this inability to fall asleep in turn stirs up more stress.

For others, dropping off is easy but sleeping comfortably through the night is a bit of a nightmare. Nearly 50% of Indians lose an average of three nights of restorative sleep each week yet very few are willing to get help, either from experts or from gadgets, according to the results of the fifth Global Sleep Survey conducted by ResMed, a health-tech company focused on sleep. The survey covered 30,026 respondents across 13 countries, including 5,000 in India.

Poor sleep impacts overall physical and mental health, affects productivity at work and strains relationships. Among the easiest steps to sleep better is to silence gadgets and stay away from screens for the two hours before bedtime, but honestly, it isn’t always possible to turn off your phone or laptop. Also read: A (little) pain is good for you.

Here’s why To get you some outside help for better nighttime routines and a more restful eight hours, we’ve put together some ideas and gizmos, which have worked for us or people we know. The 4-7-8 technique—breathing in for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds—is a breathing pattern that’s said to aid sleep by calming the mind and body and decreasing stress and anxiety. While the research on this is scanty, it’s a technique many people use and swear by and it’s often recommended by therapists, yoga practitioners and experts.