Sleep apnea patient triples in 3 years...Adverse effects on mental health such as depression and anxiety disorders
Mar 12, 2025
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Philips Korea Co., Ltd. announced the results of a survey on the perception of sleep habits and sleep apnea among 2,000 adults nationwide commissioned by Korea Research on the occasion of 「World Sleep Day」.
According to the survey, the majority of respondents said sleep is an important factor in physical health (86.5%) and mental health (84.6%), but the average weekly sleep time was only 6.4 hours, and only 29.5% were satisfied with sleep. In addition, 68.6% were disturbed in sleep due to symptoms such as insomnia (29.3%), snoring (24.7%), and sleep apnea (9.4%).
Professor Kim Hye-yoon, director of the Sleep Medicine Research Institute at International St. Mary's Hospital, who designed the questionnaire and supervised the survey results, emphasized the problem of snoring and the seriousness of sleep apnea, especially the impact on mental health.
Professor Kim said "According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of sleep apnea patients in Korea has tripled from 45,067 in 2018 to 153,802 in 2023."He warned that "if you don't sleep properly, memory and concentration will decrease and stress will increase, and sleep apnea in particular is also associated with mental health-related symptoms such as depression and anxiety disorders.". Subsequently, "47.9% of snoring symptoms have never tried treatment, and even when trying, passive methods such as nasal washing were mainly used. However, snoring should never be taken lightly as an early symptom of sleep apnea. In addition, a significant number of respondents (71.4%) were aware of the need to treat sleep apnea, but recognition of positive pressure therapy (26.0%) and recognition of being effective in treatment (29.7%) were very low""Since sleep apnea is difficult to fundamentally solve with passive methods such as improving lifestyle, active methods such as using positive pressure, a standard treatment, should be considered."," he added.
In fact, according to the survey, most sleep apnea patients recognize their initial symptoms through their cohabitants or spouses (34.6% notice that their cohabitants stop breathing, 21.5% of their snoring interferes with their cohabitants' sleep), and the rate of self-recognition or detection through examination is low. In addition, only 59.5% said they visited the hospital even if they were aware of sleep apnea, and 27.7% of sleep apnea patients still said they did not know about positive pressure.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
