High school seniors preparing for the college entrance exam. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly half of South Korea’s general high school students are sleeping less than six hours a night because of academic pressure, a new government-backed study has found, underscoring mounting concerns about student well-being in one of the world’s most education-driven societies.
According to a basic analysis report on children’s and adolescents’ rights released Wednesday by the Korea Youth Policy Institute, 46.7 percent of general high school students surveyed in 2024 said they slept fewer than six hours a day.
The survey covered 2,258 students nationwide. The average sleep time was six hours, well below the recommended eight hours for adolescents, a threshold reached by just 5.5 percent of respondents.
Academic demands were the leading cause of sleep deprivation. Students cited online lectures, homework and other at-home study as the biggest contributors, followed by private tutoring and evening self-study sessions at school. The findings point to a school culture in which academic work routinely extends late into the night.
The report also linked academic pressure to declining mental health. More than 30 percent of general high school students said they had thought about suicide, with nearly half of them attributing those thoughts primarily to grades and study-related stress. Anxiety about future career paths ranked second.
Nearly Half of Korean High School Students Sleep Less Than Six Hours, Study Finds
By contrast, students at vocational high schools—where academic pressure is generally lighter—reported significantly lower rates of suicidal ideation and were far less likely to cite schoolwork as the main cause.
Feelings of unhappiness were also widespread. Nearly one in five general high school students said they did not consider themselves happy, most often citing academic burden and concerns about future prospects. More than a third said they had considered dropping out of school, commonly because of burnout, lack of motivation or poor academic performance.
The findings highlight the continuing dominance of academic competition in shaping the daily lives and emotional health of South Korean teenagers, posing a challenge for the Democratic Party–led government as it seeks to improve youth mental health while maintaining high educational standards.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
