Philips Healthcare India today marked World Sleep Day 2017 by announcing plans to extend sleep camps and launch a Centre of Excellence for training doctors on diagnosing sleep disorders in major Indian cities in 2017. Currently, India is suspected to have over 91 million people suffering from sleep apnea, a major cause of sleep disorders.

The Centre of Excellence will provide training to doctors on diagnosis and treatment of sleep associated disordered breathing. By providing certified training, the Centre will encourage doctors to diagnose and treat patients for sleep disorders across major cities in India.

While the Centre will provide specific training to doctors, the sleep camps will raise awareness on sleep disorders and the necessity of visiting sleep labs and seeking medical attention for healthy and sound sleep.

Reiterating its commitment towards training sleep technicians, Philips will also continue to train staff and assist hospitals in setting up sleep labs across the country. Till date Philips has trained over 400 sleep technicians and guided the launch of 500 sleep labs in India.

“Awareness on sleep disorders is rising – people are increasingly looking at lack of sleep as a potential health issue. But a lot needs to be done, especially in tier-II cities. At Philips, we will continue to drive awareness on sleep disorders and map peoples’ sleep patterns in sleep labs. Sleep disorders and their relation with potentially life threatening conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cardiac arrests cannot be ignored” said Harish R, Head of Sleep & Respiratory Care at Philips India.

Dr Sanjay Manchanda, chairman, Department of Sleep Medicine, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi said “There are more than 90 sleep disorders. For people who are not able to sleep or perceive that they are not sleeping well, we recommend medication along with counselling on sleep hygiene. Sleep apnea is caused by collapse of the upper airway during sleep, which leads to cessation of breathing. The signs and symptoms of OSA are very common, the most cardinal symptom is snoring. The others are even after a full quota of sleep you do not arise up fresh in the morning and experience day-time sleepiness. No system in the body is safe if you do not get a good night’s sleep. It can lead to essential hypertension, stroke, and diabetes to name a few. The other serious outcome of sleep apnea is road accidents that happen because of the day-time sleepiness among drivers. It is important to not trivialize sleep and its associated disorders.”

Philips Healthcare India continues educating people on the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) like unwarranted daytime sleepiness and trouble in concentrating which can have an impact on productivity, lead to accidents and lower the overall quality of life.  Not only does this affect general lifestyle patterns but chronic sleep disorder could also lead to graver health issues like cardiac conditions, strokes, neurological disorders, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and irregular heartbeats.

In India, incidence of OSA varied from 4.4% to 13.7%. The prevalence of OSA is high in Northern India with 13.7% of the population reporting the syndromes. Statistics reveal that OSA in Indian males varied from 4.4% to 19.7% while amongst females it ranged from 2.5% to 7.4%. In context to OSA’s prevalence in different age groups, the elderly have been observed to have high snoring and high excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with 27% being habitual snorers. OSA is also correlated with heart failure which is 12-16% more prevalent in OSA patients. It has also been observed that approximately 60-70% of OSA patients are obese.

Patients can give a call on the toll free number 1800 208 2882 to get more details on sleep disorder screenings and schedule appointments with doctors. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2015 sales of EUR 16.8 billion and employs approximately 70,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.