Sleep Health of Urban Homeless Population of India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Sleep health can be influenced by Ambient environmental conditions. Sleep in homeless population may be disrupted by harsh extreme environmental conditions like light and noise overnight, and extreme hot and cold weathers. Sleep health in Indian homeless population has not been addressed.

330 participants of both the gender (29.75 ± 8.84 years) local homeless participants were recruited from the Gurugram city (61.5% males, 38.5% females). Sleep quality was studied using Pittsburgh sleep quality index questionnaire (PSQI). PSQI was analysed for seven components: sleep duration, latency, quality, efficiency, disturbance and daytime dysfunctions and drug use. SPSS version 25.0 was used for statistical analysis. p value <  0.05 was considered significant.

Homeless population showed mean sleep duration of 6.48 ± 1.94 h. Bedtime ranged from 8 pm to 12 midnight (mean = 10.45 ± 1.02 pm). 53.02% slept after 10 pm. 48.8% people reported more than 30 minutes sleep latency. Wake up time ranged from 4 to 10 am (mean = 5.69 ± 1.54 am). 69.4% population were poor sleepers (PSQI more than 5 indicates poor sleep quality) (mean score = 6.13 ± 3.14). Compared to good sleepers, poor sleepers had later bedtime (37 min), earlier wake up time (1 h 40 min), lesser sleep duration (2 h 17 min), poorer sleep efficiency (5%) and higher PSQI score (5.1; p = < 0.001).

Ambient environmental and sleeping conditions could be responsible for poor sleep quality, associated with late bedtime and early wake up time, long latency and reduced sleep duration of homeless population, which may lead to negative health consequences.