Association Between Weekend Catch-Up Sleep and Perceived Stress Among Adolescents in the Republic of Korea: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Insufficient sleep is common among adolescents in the Republic of Korea because of competitive academic environments. Many students compensate for lack of sleep through weekend catch-up sleep (CUS), however the degree of effectiveness is unclear. This study aimed to determine the association between weekend CUS and perceived stress in a large, school-based Korean adolescent sample. Data from the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey 2020 (KYRBWS) was used. The participants included 46,187 middle and high school students in the Republic of Korea who participated in self-administered questionnaire surveys. Weekend CUS was divided into four categories: 0 h, 0-1 h, 1-2 h, and ≥ 2 h. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived using logistic regression analyses. We found that the risk of perceived stress decreased significantly in weekend CUS groups (0 < CUS < 1 [OR]: 0.879, [95% CI: 0.808-0.957]; 1 ≤ CUS < 2 [OR]: 0.852, [95% CI: 0.785-0.924]; 2 ≥ CUS [OR]: 0.836, [95% CI: 0.775-0.902]) compared to the non-CUS group after adjusting for several confounding variables. Furthermore, the higher CUS group tended to have a lower risk of perceived stress. However, in the Grade 12 participants, in both the unadjusted and adjusted models, the weekend CUS groups did not show a significant association with the risk of perceived stress. Our study showed that weekend CUS is associated with a low risk of perceived stress among Korean adolescents.