Paid to sleep: Mumbai woman wins Rs 9.6 lakh after 60 nights in sleep internship

Most people trade sleep for work. Jiniya Chatterjee, a Mumbai resident, did the opposite for 60 days, and it earned her Rs 9.6 lakh.

Wakefit sleep internship season 5: Two lakh applicants, 10 finalists

On 5 November 2026, mattress and home-furnishings brand Wakefit announced her as the winner of Season 5 of its Sleep Internship. Besides the cash prize, she gets a vacation sponsored by the company.

The internship is exactly what it sounds like. Selected "interns" sleep at home, in their own beds, for 60 consecutive days. Wakefit supplies a mattress and a sleep tracker, and the target is about nine hours a night.

The tracker scores sleep quality and consistency, and interns also complete tasks along the way. Everyone who finishes the programme and its tasks receives Rs 1 lakh (before tax deducted at source). The best sleeper is crowned Sleep Champion and wins up to Rs 10 lakh, plus a vacation.

Season 5 drew nearly 2 lakh applications from across the country. Wakefit narrowed them to 10 finalists, who spent the next two months chasing the best sleep scores from their own homes.

The season was built like a reality show, with weekly challenges, a wildcard comeback and a finale billed as the Big Bedd Finale. In the end, the winner was decided on the close comparison of scores, with the last night's sleep score playing a key part, according to Indian media reports.

Chatterjee came out on top, taking the title, the Rs 9.6 lakh prize and the sponsored holiday.

Not the first to cash in on a good night's rest

Jiniya Chatterjee follows a line of champions since the programme began in 2019. Pooja Madhav Wavhal, a civil services aspirant, topped her season with a score of 91.36. Saishwari Patil, an auditor, posted a sleep efficiency of 99 per cent. Triparna Chakraborty won by sleeping an uninterrupted nine hours for 100 days in a row.

The internship is, of course, a marketing campaign for a mattress company. But it has become one of India's most talked-about brand properties, and Wakefit says it exists to push sleep onto the national agenda in a country where poor sleep is a growing concern. Across its seasons, the programme has drawn more than 10 lakh registrations.

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