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Objective: To study the correlation of insomnia with the socio demographic and clinical variables in a cohort of depressed patients. Method: A cross-sectional study of a cohort of 30 outpatient sample with non psychotic depression were recruited for the study. Controls were the accompanying relatives of the patients. Study was conducted at a government hospital in Tamil Nadu, South India. Study group was selected by including patients who fulfilled ICD 10 criteria for major depressive disorder. Patients who were 18yrs of age and above and both male and female genders were included in the study. Both study and control groups were administered the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure the characteristics of sleep disturbances in the sample. Differences between cases and controls on socio demographic variables were analyzed using Chi-square test. Results: The prevalence of sleep disturbances were more in the depressed people  (93.3%) than in the control group (13.3%) which was statistically significant (p = 0.001). There was also statistically significant  positive association between nightmare symptoms and suicide attempts in the depressed group (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Study shows that among depressed people, there is significant correlation between the severity of sleep disturbances especially with nightmare symptoms and suicide attempt.