Sleep Medicine in Nepal: Practice Differences, Resources and Gaps in Knowledge

The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is one of the most beautiful and stunning Himalayan countries in the world where health care needs of the majority of the population are delivered by a hybrid system of public and private sectors. Public does not perceive sleep disorders to be as critical as other health problems because they remain unaware of the serious consequences of sleep deprivation and sleep disorders. Multiple segments of the Nepalese population are awake across all hours of the 24-hour day because of the large proportions of people working as migrant workforce across the globe in different time zones. Current data reveals a high public health burden of sleep loss and sleep disorders are among them yet these disorders are frequently ignored, readily treatable, and unrecognized health problems in Nepal.

Sleep medicine remains an interdisciplinary field crossing different specialties but in Nepal, it has become almost a subspecialty of pulmonary medicine in the past few years. Nepal does not have sufficient healthcare resources to deliver the appropriate care to patients with sleep-related disorders because of an inadequate number of physicians trained in sleep medicine. Sleep disorders and sleep medicine as a specialty are under-recognized by both the public and health professionals. The government should rethink policies and redesign the programs to address the evolving syndemic of sleep disorders, metabolic syndrome, and tobacco smoking in Nepal and incorporate sleep medicine in undergraduate and postgraduate medical curricula to address the gap in the clinical care of patients with sleep disorders in Nepal.

Keywords: Medical Curriculum, Nepal, Sleep Disorders, Sleep Medicine, Syndemic.