India, Sept. 15 -- The last time she slept for eight hours straight was before her daughter was born a year-and-a-half ago, Ashwetha Anil remembers. That now seems like an impossible luxury. Back at work at an IT firm after a six-month maternity break, her infant still wakes up at least once a night for a feed. At other times, says Anil, "She wakes up and just wants to play."

Welcome to the world of the chronically sleep-deprived, where sleeping for an eight-hour stretch seems positively utopian. Nobody has it easy, not men, not women, and yet, even here, there is a marked gender gap.

Using the government's 2024 Time Use Data of 450,000 Indians, analysis in Mint by Tanay Sukumar finds a gender sleep gap with young Indian women sleeping ...