South Korea’s high school students sleep as little as five hours a day, according to research data released by Gyeonggi Educational Research Institute on Monday.

A GERI survey attempted to identify the average sleeping hours of Gyeonggi Province students through data gathered from 11,834 students from 212 elementary, middle and high schools in the province.

According to the data, more than 80 percent of high school students wake up before 7:00 a.m. and sleep on average 5-7 hours a day. Most high school students said that they go to bed after midnight, some even after 2:00 a.m.  

Due to sleep deprivation, 24.4 percent of Gyeonggi high school students also answered that they doze off in class every day. 

Educational and social pressure both seem to contribute to the issue. On average, a high school student spends about 1 million won ($887.66) per month on hagwon, or after-school private academies. 

The survey also showed that 90 percent of high school students use smartphones and they spend 211 minutes a day text messaging and playing mobile games. 

From news report
(knews@heraldcorp.com)