More women in 30s suffer from sleep disorders

/Korea Times file

More women in their 30s are suffering from sleep disorders because of pressure from juggling a job and childrearing, figures show.

According to National Health Insurance Service data, 415,000 people were provided with medical expenses for sleep disorders (Disease code: G47) in 2014. In 2012, 358,000 were beneficiaries of the insurance, an average annual increase of 7.6 percent.

About 46.4 billion won were spent to treat the problem in 2014, as against 36 billion won in 2012.

Women accounted for 59.5 percent of the patients (or 247,000).

People in their 30s who have sleep disorders increased to 591 per 100,000 people in 2014 or an annual 9.3 percent over 2012 when 495 per 100,000 suffered from sleep disorders. Women in this age group were particularly vulnerable_ increasing 10.4 percent annually, while the average annual increase rate was 6.4 percent.

Suffering sleep disorder means a person cannot sleep at night or finds it hard to stay awake during the day.

“More women complain about sleep disorders because of pressure from child caring and workplace,” said Dr. Seo Ho-suk, at the CHA Gangnam Medical Center.