Nightmares share genetic risk factors with sleep and psychiatric traits
Hanna M. Ollila, Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, Katri Kantojärvi, Martin Broberg, Teemu Palviainen, Samuel E. Jones, Vili Ripatti, Anita Pandit, Robin Rong, Kati Kristiansson, Nils Sandman, Katja Valli, Christer Hublin, Samuli Ripatti, Elisabeth Widén, Jaakko Kaprio, Richa Saxena, Tiina Paunio
Translational Psychiatry February 27, 2024 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02637-6 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Genome-wide association study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 45,255 |
| Population | Individuals with questionnaire-based assessment on nightmare frequency and genome-wide genotyping data |
| Topics | Anxiety Dreaming |
| Keywords | Neuroticism Genome-wide association study Mendelian randomization Clinical psychology Heritability Concordance Endophenotype Personality Single-nucleotide polymorphism Genetic variants Genetics Cognition |
| Citations | 18 |
| Key points | Nightmares share genetic background with psychiatric traits such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and neuroticism, and insomnia may causally increase liability to frequent nightmares. |
Abstract
Nightmares are vivid, extended, and emotionally negative or negative dreams that awaken the dreamer. While sporadic nightmares and bad dreams are common and generally harmless, frequent nightmares often reflect underlying pathologies of emotional regulation. Indeed, insomnia, depression, anxiety, or alcohol use have been associated with nightmares in epidemiological and clinical studies. However, the connection between nightmares and their comorbidities are poorly understood. Our goal was to examine the genetic risk factors for nightmares and estimate correlation or causality between nightmares and comorbidities. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 45,255 individuals using a questionnaire-based assessment on the frequency of nightmares during the past month and genome-wide genotyping data. While the GWAS did not reveal individual risk variants, heritability was estimated at 5%. In addition, the genetic correlation analysis showed a robust correlation (rg > 0.4) of nightmares with anxiety (rg = 0.671, p = 7.507e-06), depressive (rg = 0.562, p = 1.282e-07) and posttraumatic stress disorders (rg = 0.4083, p = 0.0152), and personality trait neuroticism (rg = 0.667, p = 4.516e-07). Furthermore, Mendelian randomization suggested causality from insomnia to nightmares (beta = 0.027, p = 0.0002). Our findings suggest that nightmares share genetic background with psychiatric traits and that insomnia may increase an individual's liability to experience frequent nightmares. Given the significant correlations with psychiatric and psychological traits, it is essential to grow awareness of how nightmares affect health and disease and systematically collect information about nightmares, especially from clinical samples and larger cohorts.