South Korean Women Account For 59.5 Percent Of Patients Suffering From Sleep Disorders In 2014, National Health Insurance Service Says

More beneficiaries were given medical expenses for sleep disorders in 2014. According to National Health Insurance Service data, some 415,000 people were provided with the insurance last year as compared to around 358,000 recipients in 2012, Korea Times reported Oct. 4.

Last year, around 46.4 billion won were allocated for the treatment of patients who are suffering from the disorder. The data also reveals that South Korean women are accounted for 59.5% of the patients, with most of them in their 30s.

South Koreans in their 30s who suffer from sleep disorders increased last year to 591 for every 100,000 patients.

People who sleep too much or too little are considered to have sleep disorders, which could lead to heart disease, a study reveals.

"Many people, up to one third or one fourth of the general population, suffer from inadequate sleep - either insufficient duration of sleep or poor quality of sleep," said Dr. Chan Won Kim, as noted by Reuters on September 11.

"In contrast, we studied if sleep of inadequate duration or quality would be linked to early markers of heart disease in asymptomatic healthy adults free of heart disease."

Dr. Kim co-authored a research study entitled "Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, and Markers of Subclinical Arterial Disease in Healthy Men and Women."

"Inadequate sleep is a common problem and a likely source of poor health, including visible signs of disease, such as heart attack," Dr. Kim added.

The study involved 47,000 participants who were asked to share on how long or how well they sleep. Results of the study reveal that a person who sleeps too much or too little increases the risk of heart disease.

"The associations of too short or too long sleep duration and of poor sleep quality with early indicators of heart disease, such as coronary calcium and arterial stiffness, provides strong support to the increasing body of evidence that links inadequate sleep with an increased risk of heart attacks," he said.

On the other hand, Dr. Seo Ho Suk of CHA Gangnam Medical Center said more women suffer from sleep disorders because of two factors: work and childrearing.