Average Sleep Time in Korea: 6.8 Hours in a 332-Adult Study

In a survey of 332 Korean adults aged 20 to 76, the average sleep time was 6.8 hours. That's the number to start from for how many hours Koreans sleep. Bedtime shifts with age, too: older adults went to bed and got up earlier, and women went to bed earlier than men. The rest of this page sorts out which numbers come from that one snapshot. The others come from a separate 2004–2019 look at change over time.

Average sleep time in Korea: 6.8 hours

A notebook on a desk with a simple hand-drawn bar chart next to a cup of tea.

The 332 people in this survey ranged from their twenties up to age 76. So the 6.8-hour average pools young and older adults together. The study looked at sleep habits and sleeping symptoms. That's why it also records things like sleep position and how often people toss or wake during sleep.

Treat 6.8 as a midpoint for that group. It describes the group, not any single person, and not every household in the country.

Two studies, two different jobs

Two stacks of paper survey forms side by side on a table, one thin and one very tall.

Two sets of numbers sit behind most of what follows. The first is the 332-adult survey: one group at one moment, with questions about habits, positions and symptoms. The second tracks change: of 168,682 people who completed Korean time-use surveys between 2004 and 2019, 91,998 made it into the final analysis.

The first shows sleep across ages and between men and women; the second shows whether sleep time moved over the years. Keep those jobs apart when you read any figure below.

Older adults go to bed and get up earlier

An older man in a quiet apartment kitchen at first light, pouring tea beside a window.

In the 332-adult survey, older participants fell asleep earlier and woke earlier than younger ones. They also tossed and woke more often during sleep, and that grew with age.

If you are matching schedules with an older host or relative in Korea, expect them to be up before you are. The pattern is about direction, so it works as a rough guide rather than a timetable.

Women went to bed earlier than men

Women in the survey turned in earlier than men did. They were also more likely than men to sleep on their sides. Along with age, sex was the second thing that separated bedtimes in this group.

Sleep got longer from 2004 to 2019

Over the longer run, the data points up. Sleep time increased in every age group between 2004 and 2019. It was a broad shift, not a pocket in one age band.

This group is much larger than the 332 adults, and its question is change rather than length: did sleep time move, not how long do people sleep.

Later wake-ups added the hours, not earlier nights

Bedtime showed no significant change over the study period. Wake-up time, on the other hand, got later in all age groups.

Most of the extra sleep came from Saturday catch-up sleep. People woke up later, and the night grew noticeably longer. In plain terms, Koreans didn't start going to bed earlier. They started getting up later, mainly on Saturday morning.

Over half slept on their backs

Of the 332 adults, 52% said they sleep on their backs, the supine position, which makes it the majority position. These are answers people gave, so they reflect how people describe their own sleep.

Snapshot or trend: where each number comes from

Quick reference: the middle column is the 332-adult snapshot and the right column is the 2004–2019 change over time. A separate page on this topic covers only teenagers' weekday sleep time; its body text has no figures for all Koreans, for age-group comparisons, or for bedtime.

Topic	Snapshot: 332 adults, ages 20 to 76	Trend: 2004–2019, 91,998 people analyzed
Sleep time	6.8 hours on average	Longer in every age group
Bedtime	Earlier for older adults and for women	No significant change
Wake-up	Earlier for older adults	Later in all age groups
Where the extra sleep came from	Not covered	Mostly Saturday catch-up sleep
Sleep position	52% on their backs; women more often on their sides	Not covered
During sleep	Older adults tossed and woke more often	Not covered

Three easy ways to misread these numbers

First, a typical bedtime isn't a clock time here. The survey points to earlier bedtimes for older adults and for women, which gives a direction. It doesn't give an hour you can quote as the Korean bedtime.

Second, longer sleep doesn't mean earlier nights. Over 2004–2019, bedtime stayed flat and the gain came from later mornings. Don't confuse that with older adults going to bed early in the snapshot.

Third, keep the two studies apart. The age and sex differences belong to the 332 adults, and the Saturday finding belongs to the 91,998 people analyzed over the years.