The North South Divide in How Indian Men Sleep and Stress, Mapped by Traya's 4.9 Lakh Strong Report

Southern states dominate the burden tables while the North and the heartland hold the calm end, finds the Traya Hair Test Report. Traya's analysis of 4.9 lakh Indian men reveals striking regional differences in sleep quality and stress levels between North and South India.

Draw a line across the middle of India and the Traya Hair Test Report's two maps, stress and sleep, split along it with remarkable discipline. In the report's analysis of 4,89,721 hair test responses from men across 20 states and 50 cities, the South carries the burden and the North holds the calm, consistently, on both measures, at both ends of both tables.

The southern end reads like a single finding repeated. Tamil Nadu leads the country in both disturbed sleep, at 30.4%, and high stress, at 10.2%. Andhra Pradesh follows at 29.8% and 9.6%. Telangana posts 27.6% and 9.1%, Kerala 25.1% disturbed sleep, Karnataka 24.4%. Every major southern state sits above the national averages of 22.1% for disturbed sleep and 7.7% for high stress.

The calm half of the Traya map

Now the North. Rajasthan: 17.6% disturbed sleep, 6.5% high stress, and the country's highest share of peaceful sleep at 77%. Bihar: 17.6% and 7.3%. Uttar Pradesh: 18.7% disturbed sleep. Punjab and Haryana: 6.4% and 6.5% high stress, the second and third lowest in India. Jammu and Kashmir: the lowest high stress in the country at 6.0%. Gujarat, on the western edge of the calm belt: 19.8% and 6.9%. Every one of them under the national line on both measures.

The exceptions only sharpen the rule. West Bengal, at 9.7% high stress, is the one eastern state to crash the southern end of the stress table, while its sleep numbers stay moderate. Maharashtra, the country's industrial bridge between north and south, sits almost exactly at the national average on everything, which is precisely where geography would predict.

What the divide is not

The divide is not about development, or at least not in the direction convention assumes. The southern states are India's most industrialised, most urbanised and most educated; on this data they are also its most stressed and worst rested. The heartland states that trail every development index lead the tables for rest and calm. Prosperity, the numbers suggest, is being purchased somewhere, and part of the price is being paid at night.

The report cannot say what drives the split: the South's night shift economies and manufacturing corridors, its urban density, migration flows that carry the North's most pressured men into southern cities where the data counts them, or differences in how candidly men of different regions report difficulty. It can only say, at the scale of half a million men, that the split exists, that it is large, and that it is the most consistent single pattern in the entire dataset.

The full report, including complete state and city tables, is available on the Traya newsroom at traya.health/newsroom, along with the latest Traya news and updates.

Methodology: Findings are drawn from 4,89,721 hair test responses submitted by men across India, spanning 20 states and 50 cities. Sleep quality and stress levels are self reported by respondents as part of the Traya hair test questionnaire. Figures are population level statistics and do not represent medical diagnoses. Data extracted March and April 2026.

Note: No part of this article makes a medical, diagnostic, or treatment claim. All figures are population level statistics from self reported responses on the Traya hair test.