New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- In The Beat Report, Mint's journalists bring you unique perspectives on their beats, breaking down new trends and developments, and sharing behind-the-scenes stories from their reporting.

Good morning!

One day in early June, my boss asked me as I sat across his desk right in the middle of the afternoon, "You look sleep-deprived. What happened?" Now, that's not a question that usually comes my way since I rarely mess around with my sleep. But the irony struck me: for 10 days straight, I had indeed been working overtime-and I had been working on a story about sleep itself.

For a good part of the three months that have passed since then, a childhood Bollywood song had made a haunting return in my head: "Neend churay...