Driven by pressure in a high-paced contemporary society, 38 percent of Chinese adults suffer from insomnia, according to a survey.

Media, IT and medical professionals are the most likely to sleep little, says Luo Xiaolin, an expert from a brain hospital in Hunan province, south China. In 2013, the hospital treated more than 5000 patients for insomnia while the number jumped to nearly 9000 in 2014.

Some 38 percent of Chinese adults suffer from insomnia, according to a survey by the Chinese Sleep Research Society. Sufferers may find it hard to fall asleep, but easy to wake up. They do not sleep well in terms of either quality or duration.

Data shows that psychological pressure (46 percent) is the No. 1 cause of insomnia, followed by primary insomnia (23 percent), delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS, 7 percent) and sleep apnea (6 percent).

Chronic patients are advised to seek professional help from sleep treatment centers rather than blindly fighting the symptoms with insomnia medicine. Otherwise, insomnia sufferers can become reliant upon these medicines, according to sleep doctor Ma Jing.

"Our country is short of sleep doctors. We can consider opening up complete sleep courses at medical colleges to fasten the pace of training professionals," Ma added.