Koreans slept more during the coronavirus pandemic than they ever had, but they still get less sleep than their peers in more laid-back countries.
Samsung on Tuesday released a study of sleep patterns of 10 million users of its smartwatches in 16 countries, which shows that all of them slept more since the pandemic started, but Koreans more markedly than any of the others.
But the quality of their sleep deteriorated, perhaps because they made up for the time saved commuting by going to bed later.
The study was conducted from January 2018, before the start of the pandemic, to June 2021.
Korea topped the list with an increase of 17 minutes a day to six hours and 41 minutes. Next came Argentina with an increase of 16 minutes, Indonesia (13 minutes), Italy (10 minutes), and India (nine minutes).
But Korea still came fourth from the bottom with the shortest sleep time. French people slept longest at seven hours and 26 minutes.
Sleep "efficiency" -- the ratio of time spent actually sleeping to time spent in bed -- improved most markedly in Indonesia from 84.82 percent to 85.96 percent, followed by Korea (86.09 percent to 86.73 percent). But it was Argentina that had the best sleep efficiency already at 88.55 percent.
According to the study, the world average sleep time increased slightly from six hours and 56 minutes to seven hours and two minutes, but average global sleep efficiency dwindled from 87.86 percent to 87.79 percent.
