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

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

Hoon Jo,^1,2 Joo ho Cheong,³ Mun Sik Chung,³ Dong Yu Kim,³ Ju In Kim³ and Sung-Kyung Kim⁴

¹Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Gangwon, Republic of Korea
²Department of Rehabilitation Science, Graduate School of Health Science, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Gangwon, Republic of Korea
³Department of Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Gangwon, Republic of Korea
⁴Department of Preventive Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Gangwon, Republic of Korea

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.

Key words —— adolescent; odds ratio; sleep; stress; students

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2025 May, 266(3), 265-272.

Correspondence: Sung-Kyung Kim, Department of Preventive Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, 20 Ilsan-ro, Wonju 26426, Korea.

e-mail: stacte@yonsei.ac.kr