"Slept 10 Hours to Catch Up on the Weekend, but Why Do I Feel More Depressed?"... The Push and Pull Between Sleep and Depression [Health Issue]

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[The Financial News] A survey found that the risk of developing depressive symptoms is 2.1 times higher among people who sleep too little or too much than among those who maintain an appropriate amount of sleep.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) recently released an in-depth analysis of depression prevalence based on data from the 2025 Community Health Survey, which covered about 230,000 adults aged 19 and older nationwide.
Depressive symptom prevalence is used to identify people at risk of depression. It refers to the share of people who score 10 or higher on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Those who score 10 or above may be clinically depressed, and medical visits and expert counseling are recommended.
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According to the analysis, depressive symptom prevalence rose from 2.7% in 2017 to 3.4% last year, up 25.9%. By contrast, the annual rate of experiencing depression increased from 5.5% in 2016 to 7.3% in 2023, before easing slightly to 5.9% last year.
The annual rate of experiencing depression refers to cases in which a person felt sadness, hopelessness or depression for at least two consecutive weeks over the past year to the point that daily life was disrupted. Among those who experienced such symptoms, the share who had received professional counseling for depression rose from 16.5% in 2016 to 27.3% last year.
High-risk groups for depression were found among socially and economically vulnerable groups, including women, people in their 70s and older, the unemployed, households with monthly income below 2 million won, single-person households and recipients of basic livelihood support. Women showed a 1.7 times higher prevalence than men, basic livelihood support households were 4.6 times higher than non-recipient households, and single-person households were 2.3 times higher than households with two or more members.
Based on overall prevalence, the unemployed were 1.7 times higher, those earning 2 million won or less per month were 2.6 times higher, and people in their 70s and older were 1.7 times higher. In particular, the prevalence among single-person households headed by people aged 70 or older stood at 8.9%, or 2.6 times the overall rate.
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Compared with the 7- to 8-hour sleep group, the risk of depressive symptoms was 2.1 times higher in those who slept 6 hours or less or 9 hours or more. The risk also rose 2.0 times when contact with friends was less than once a month, and 1.8 times when trust among neighbors was low.
Among health behavior factors, smoking increased the risk by 1.7 times, lack of physical activity such as walking or strength training raised it by 1.2 to 1.4 times, and high-risk drinking increased the risk by 1.3 times.
Among the country's 17 metropolitan and provincial governments, the highest prevalence of depressive symptoms was recorded in Ulsan Metropolitan City at 4.9%, followed by South Chungcheong Province at 4.4%, and Daejeon and Incheon Metropolitan City at 4.2%. The lowest rates were seen in Gwangju Metropolitan City and North Jeolla Province at 2.3%, as well as Busan, Daegu and South Gyeongsang Province at 3.0%.
Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Im Seung-kwan said, "This analysis confirmed that the high-risk groups for depression are women in their 20s and 30s, people aged 70 and older, single-person households, the unemployed and low-income groups," adding, "The main factors are excessive or insufficient sleep," and emphasized that "appropriate sleep, maintaining social relationships and healthy lifestyle habits are important for preventing depression."
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter