How a Mumbai resident won nearly Rs 10 lakh for staying in bed

New Delhi: Getting a solid eight hours of sleep usually just leaves you feeling fresh the next morning. But for Jiniya Chatterjee from Mumbai, it brought home a cash prize of Rs 9.6 lakh and an all-expenses-paid holiday after she bagged the top spot in the fifth season of the Wakefit Sleep Internship.

The mattress and furniture brand had picked 10 finalists from over two lakh applicants across the country for the two-month-long initiative. The basic drill was fairly straightforward: follow a steady night-time routine, log deep rest on a daily basis, and try to keep scores high on the board over 60 days.

However, the competition went beyond merely lying in bed. Contestants had to tackle bizarre weekly mini-games to stay relevant. In ‘Sleep Cinema’, they reenacted popular movie scenes with an added sleep theme. ‘Sleep Bingo’ had them map their weekly habits while the ‘Undercover Sleep Mission’ tested whether they could slip the words “blanket” or “pillow” into normal daily conversations 10 times without getting caught. High scorers walked away with the ‘Pro Sleeper of the Week’ tag.

Reality show format for the finale

By the end of the two months, Ratnagiri Manikandan, Jiniya Chatterjee, and Mehek Khot made the cut as the top three contenders. Joining them was Hyderabad’s Karim Khan, who earned a wildcard slot after racking up the most wins across the weekly creative rounds.

All four moved into the finale, packaged like a reality show titled ‘Big Bedd’. The finalists faced on-the-spot challenges before their sleep was tracked one last time. In the ‘Memory Foam Challenge’, they had to observe reference pictures and rebuild an identical bedroom layout from memory.

Bidding for pillows and blankets

That was followed by the ‘Sleep Auction’, where contestants bid for bedroom essentials including AC controls, specific lighting, white noise settings, pillows, and blankets. accompanied by a rap lullaby from host Anuj Gupta.

Once their rooms were locked in, the four spent their final night under monitors. When the night’s sleep scores were calculated alongside overall consistency, Jiniya Chatterjee came out ahead to take the title. Since starting the programme in 2019, Wakefit has drawn over 10 lakh applicants across its first four runs, paying out Rs 1 lakh stipends to 65 interns before this season’s Rs 9.6 lakh payout.