The number of South Koreans with sleeping disorders has been increasing over the past few years. According to the data compiled by Rep. In Jae-keun of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, the number of South Koreans diagnosed with insomnia came to 456,000 in 2015, up 40 percent from 325,000 tallied in 2011. The number of people suffered from insomnia gets more and more increasing, so the government needs to come up with campaigns for better sleep.

▲ Insomnia

What is insomnia? It means that someone spends most of his time in opened eyes instead of taking a normal sleep. Despite tremendous tiredness, someone cannot sleep on time and even if he sleeps, soon, he will wake up. Insomnia has a high possibility to deteriorate the mind and to cause other mental diseases. In fact, it is one of the main reasons of all mental diseases. In other words, if a person does not cure insomnia on time and tolerate it, it can turn into serious illnesses like schizophrenia.

Insomnia occurs in many ways like excessive consumption of nicotine and caffeine. Also, if a person's bedtime and wake-up time are very irregular, his body cannot control his sleep cycle. Insomnia occurs in psychological reason, too. A person who is caught in a stereotype that he must sleep eight hours always wants to keep his way to have a healthy life. Also, he attributes the reason to have eight hours, of sleep despite other factors.

▲ Increasing the number of South Korean patients suffered from Insomnia

To cure insomnia, the amount of related medical expenses also reached to 50.2 billion won, up 57 percent from 2011. However, the government needs to use more money in promoting a campaign on the proper use of drugs and other things. In addition, the reason for insomnia is the lack of bedtime. South Koreans only sleep seven hours and 41 minutes a day on average, marking the lowest figure among the OECD member countries. So, we must avoid electronic gadgets on late night and form good habits that will keep a regular and healthy lifestyle.

▲ Good habits to prevent insomnia

By Kim Dae-Hwan