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Six million Koreans have sleep apnea — and 80% of them don't know

Published: 12 Mar. 2025, 18:36

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

From left, Park Do-hyun, head of Philips Korea's sleep and respiratory care division; Shehaan Fernando, head of Philips’ sleep and respiratory care in the Asia-Pacific region and his translator, and Kim Hye-yun, director of Sleep Medicine Research Center at International St. Mary’s Hospital, takes questions from the press at a briefing at The Westin Josun Seoul in central Seoul on March 12. [PHILIPS KOREA]

More than six million sleep-deprived Koreans suffer from sleep apnea, yet awareness of the condition and the steps needed to seek treatment remains low, according to research by the Dutch medical equipment provider Philips.

Shehaan Fernando, head of Philips’ sleep and respiratory care in the Asia-Pacific region, labeled sleep apnea as a “hidden epidemic” that impacts 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women.

“More than 6 million adult Koreans are affected by this condition, and what is most worrying is that 80 percent of those individuals are not aware of this condition,” he said at a press event in central Seoul on Wednesday to commemorating World Sleep Day, which is celebrated on March 18.

“The consequences of untreated obstructive sleep apnea are significant,” Fernando said. “Studies have highlighted a reduction of almost 10 percent of your life expectancy.”

More than 80 percent of respondents to a nationwide sleep-related survey of 2,000 Korean adults identified sleep as crucial to their physical and mental health — but their average weeknight sleep duration was only 6.4 hours, and only 29.5 percent said were satisfied with their sleep quality.

Moreover, 68.6 percent of respondents experienced sleep disturbances: 29.3 percent reported insomnia, 24.7 percent snoring and 9.4 percent sleep apnea.

Kim Hye-yun, director of the Sleep Medicine Research Center at International St. Mary’s Hospital, who supervised the survey’s questionnaire design and analysis, emphasized that untreated sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea, can heighten anxiety and depression.

Some 47.9 percent of survey respondents with snoring issues had never sought treatment, while those who had primarily relied on home remedies like nasal rinsing — which Kim believes to be ineffective.

“Snoring should never be taken lightly, as it is often an early symptom of sleep apnea,” Kim said.

The number of sleep apnea patients in Korea tripled from 45,067 in 2018 to 153,802 in 2023, according to data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

Although 71.4 percent of respondents recognized that sleep apnea required medical treatment, only 26 percent were aware of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, which delivers continuous airflow through a mask to keep a patient's airway open during sleep, and only 29.7 percent believed it to be effective.

“Lifestyle changes alone are not a fundamental solution to sleep apnea,” Kim stressed. “It requires proactive treatment, such as CPAP therapy, which is the standard medical approach.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]