SEOUL, May 04 (AJP) - In South Korea, where overwork and sleep deprivation have become almost a national condition, even rest now comes with rules, timers and a scoreboard.
At the Han River on Saturday afternoon, 170 contestants arrived armed with plush toys, mosquito-proof determination and creative signs — including one reading, “Don’t wake me up unless you’re a prince” matched with modern-day Sleeping Beauties in gown for Seoul’s annual Han River Napping Championship.
Since overwork and chronic sleep deprivation come with the journalist’s job, I joined them.
The rule was paradoxically simple: fall asleep in public — deeply — while everyone watches.
Going to sleep required rituals and performance.
A pre-nap yoga session intended to relax participants did the opposite for someone unaccustomed to stretching both muscles and stress.
Some contestants clung to oversized stuffed animals like emotional-support teammates. One wore a sleep mask labeled “Offline.” Another built a miniature “sleep zone” complete with neck pillows and warning tape.
The challenge was not merely to nap. It was to nap competitively.
Lying among 170 strangers in an open public space, the experience of trying to rest became something communal — and for many, strangely unfamiliar.
Participants were fitted with heart-rate monitors checked every 30 minutes, while organizers wandered through the crowd armed with feathers and mosquito sound effects to sabotage sleepers.
Winners were chosen based on how steadily and deeply their heart rates dropped over time, turning the ancient human act of collapsing from exhaustion into quantified performance art.
Then every 30 minutes, the host’s microphone shattered the silence again.
From afar, the riverside scene looked peaceful, almost whimsical. Up close, it resembled a wellness survival game show: rest under observation, relaxation under evaluation.
Yet for many participants, the event felt less absurd than oddly familiar.
“I usually sleep about three to four hours a day,” said Nam Ji-soo, a 30-year-old office worker. “Work doesn’t really stop, and even on weekends, it’s hard to feel fully rested.”
University student Park Jun-seok blamed the modern holy trinity of insomnia — social media, short videos and endless notifications.
“You lie down to rest, but something always distracts you,” he said. “Social media and YouTube end up being the biggest cause of my lack of sleep.”
Their exhaustion reflects a broader national pattern.
South Korea ranked near the bottom globally in the IKEA Sleep Report 2025, placing 50th out of 57 surveyed markets with one of the world’s lowest sleep satisfaction levels. Koreans averaged just 6 hours and 27 minutes of sleep per night, among the shortest durations recorded.
And even that may be optimistic.
A separate 2025 study by the Korean Society of Sleep Research estimated actual average sleep time at only 5 hours and 25 minutes. Another report found Koreans sleep roughly 90 minutes less than the OECD average.
Perhaps most revealing is what happens before bed: nearly 70 percent of adults use smartphones until the moment they fall asleep, while more than 60 percent keep their phones beside them overnight.
The sleep deficit is coupled with overwork and stress, and experts say the daydreaming or sleeping contests reflects something deeper about modern Korean life.
“Sleeping is something we usually do alone, in a private space. But here, it happens in public,” said Kim Jae-hwi, a psychology professor at Chung-Ang University. “Koreans are turning the most private time into a public show.”
And perhaps that is what made the scene feel strangely fitting.
In a country where productivity rarely powers down and smartphones follow people into bed, even doing nothing now requires an organized event, a heart-rate tracker and an official excuse to rest.
For one afternoon at the Han River, sleep stopped being invisible.
It became performance, competition — and somehow, entertainment.
For me, it was the rarest luxury of all: sanctioned rest disguised as work.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.