How Korean Young People Seek Rest

 

In Seoul’s Gangnam and Hongdae neighborhoods, dedicated spaces offer sleep and relaxation by the hour. For a set fee, visitors can use private sleeping rooms, massage chairs, or seats separated by curtains.

Opened in 2016, Shim Story offers individual sleeping rooms, massage chairs, and seating where visitors can stretch out. “I wanted to create a space where people could unwind however they liked—through massage, sleep, or reading,” said founder Jung. “But because so many people come here to sleep, it has become known primarily as a place for a nap.”

An office worker identified as J said, “I come to Shim Story when I’m physically exhausted. Sometimes I even skip lunch to spend my break here.”

Photo: Private sleeping rooms at Shim Story.

The design of these spaces reflects their operators’ own experiences of being unable to rest properly at work. Kim, founder of the massage-chair café Shim Lounge, recalled, “There was a break room at my company, but you had to scan your employee ID to use it, so I rarely went. Many office workers would sleep in toilet stalls.”

A woman in her 40s who runs a women-only rest space shared a similar experience. “The break room at work was cramped, and it was difficult to have any privacy,” she said. “Here, you don’t have to do anything.”

Rest has also become the focus of organized events. Held in Apgujeong on August 29 and 30, “ceiling service” brought together sound, movement, tea, and meditation, inviting participants to experience something unfamiliar while feeling at ease. Over four hours, visitors lay on mattresses to watch performances, slept, read, or talked quietly.

“Rather than prescribing how people should rest, we focused on creating conditions in which they could discover what felt comfortable for them,” said Kwak, the event’s organizer.

On the fifth of the month, the Asia Culture Center (ACC), under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, hosted the “2026 ACC Haneul Madang Space-Out Competition” in Jeonnam–Gwangju Integrated Special City.

Visual artist Woopsyang, who first conceived the Space-Out Competition in 2014, said, “The idea came from imagining how, in a world that never stops moving, we might become a still backdrop for one another.”

A participant identified as H said, “Competition is so intense in Korea that the fear of falling behind makes it even harder to rest. There’s something meaningful about turning the experience of resting into an artistic activity we create together.”

Photo: A participant in the 2026 ACC Space-Out Competition poster rest while sitting or lying on the lawn.

“Events centered on rest create a sense of social permission and a boundary that says, ‘You can rest now,’” said Kim Ju-yeon, a professor of urban sociology at the University of Seoul. “But if people can only relax without guilt by attending a special event, that also suggests there is not enough room for rest in everyday life.”

A Society in Need of Rest

Young people’s efforts to make room for rest stem from overlapping pressures: fatigue that sleep alone does not resolve, anxiety about their future careers, and emotional exhaustion.

According to the Korean Sleep Research Society’s 2024 report on sleep in Korea, Koreans sleep an average of six hours and 58 minutes a night—18 percent less than the OECD average.

“By the time I get home from work, it’s seven or eight in the evening,” said a respondent surnamed Lee. “Once I’ve met friends, spent time on hobbies, or prepared for a job change, I end up short on sleep.”

A neurology professor at Seoul National University Hospital, identified as Y, said, “A short nap of 15 to 30 minutes between 1 and 3 p.m. can effectively reduce drowsiness and fatigue and help you recover quickly.” The professor emphasized, however, that “getting enough quality sleep at night matters most.”

Anxiety over careers and making a living also takes a toll. According to the Office for Government Policy Coordination’s 2024 Survey on Young People’s Lives, 32.2 percent of people aged 19 to 34 had experienced burnout in the previous year. Career anxiety was the most frequently cited reason, at 39.1 percent.

“Young people today are being driven into a fragmented state of exhaustion by the compulsion to constantly manage and prove themselves,” said a professor at Duksung Women’s University, identified as R.

“Even on my days off, I keep wondering, ‘Is it really okay for me to be doing this?’ So mentally, I never fully rest,” said M, a respondent in their 20s. “I need a place where I can step away from the pressures of everyday life for a while and enjoy some quiet.”

L, a Space-Out Competition participant in their 30s, described a similar feeling. “Whenever I saw other people working hard, I felt worthless,” they said. “Spacing out alone makes me feel as though I’m the only one falling behind. But doing it together, with everyone letting their minds go blank, was actually comforting.”

Photo: “It was lovely to spend 90 minutes simply watching the clouds,” said one Space-Out Competition participant.

Rest Between Self-Care and Commercialization

The growing variety of ways to rest has prompted mixed responses. For young people who struggle to unwind in everyday life, paid rest spaces offer another option. Yet some question what it means when even rest depends on the ability to pay.

Professor Kim described paid rest spaces as “both an active attempt at self-care and self-preservation, and an extreme form of commercialization in which even rest must depend on the market.”

“The capability to rest means being free to rest in ways that you personally value,” said Professor Kim. “Paid spaces can expand the options available. But if people have to pay because there are no alternatives, it is difficult to say that their capability to rest has increased.”

Others argue that a society offering too few opportunities to rest comfortably needs to rethink its attitude toward downtime.

“We need places to sleep in schools and workplaces, along with a culture that treats napping as a way to care for our health rather than as laziness,” said Professor Jung.

Young people, meanwhile, continue to create and define rest according to their own circumstances.

“The only places I can really rest are my dormitory or a comic-book café,” said Kim, a 25-year-old writer. “Unless there were special circumstances, I wouldn’t pay just to rest.”

“I think real rest is something you have to seek out for yourself,” said another respondent, surnamed Moon. “Even when your surroundings are unforgiving, it’s important to find your own way of resting and protect it.”

“I’m not sure the growth of the rest industry is a good thing,” said one business owner, identified as Kim. “It also shows how difficult life in this society has become.”