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Kim Eh-ra, a salaried worker in her early 30s, says she is spending more money to get better sleep as her work stress continues to mount.

"It all started with a sleep diffuser, which only cost a little more than 10,000 won ($7.30), before expanding to several supplements, including melatonin gummies and magnesium tablets, and eventually a pillow that cost more than 300,000 won," she said.

Kim's spending reflects the fast-growing sleep market in Korea, which soared more than sixfold to 3 trillion won between 2011 and 2021, according to a report released by KB Financial Group's think tank, Wednesday.

The market is anticipated to be worth more than 40 trillion won by 2026.

This sharp market growth comes as Koreans suffer from especially severe sleep deprivation compared to the OECD average.

Citing the OECD's 2021 data, the think tank said the time spent sleeping averaged 471 minutes per day in Korea, which was 30 minutes below the OECD average.

Of the major economies, Korea only performed better than Japan, where 442 minutes were spent sleeping daily.

People in the U.K. averaged 508 minutes of sleep per day, while Australians got 512 minutes, Americans had 531 minutes and the Chinese had 541 minutes.

The quality of sleep for Koreans was also low.

Of the 13,000 respondents from 13 countries surveyed by health technology firm Philips, those who were satisfied with their sleep averaged 55 percent.

But for Koreans alone, the figure turned out to be 41 percent.

Stress accounted for 54 percent of sleep disruption, followed by bedroom condition at 40 percent, insomnia and work routine both at 37 percent, excessive leisure activities at 36 percent, health condition at 32 percent and snoring at 29 percent.

The number of patients with sleep disorders totaled 1.09 million in 2022, up from 855,000 in 2018.

"And the market is expected to evolve, joined by high-tech companies, financial companies and others that were seemingly not related to the health industry in the past," the report said.