The Relationship between Nightmare Experience and Athletes’ Personality Traits and Anxiety
Youteng Gan, Ruohang Wang, Jiangang Li, Xueyu Wang, Hongying Fan
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health October 8, 2022 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912900 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 277 |
| Population | 187 athletes (mean age 20.44 years, 91 females, 96 males) and 90 non-athletes (mean age 20.34 years, 52 females, 38 males) who reported having nightmares |
| Topics | Anxiety Dreaming |
| Keywords | Athletes Neuroticism Clinical psychology Personality Physical therapy |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key findings | Anxiety, neuroticism, and sensation seeking positively predicted athletes' nightmare experiences. |
Abstract
Objective: Frequent nightmare behavior or deep nightmare experiences may harm the physical and mental health and performance of athletes. This study explores the nightmare experiences of athletes, and includes non-athletes with similar experiences for comparison.
Methods: The Nightmare Experience Questionnaire (NEQ); Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire, Shortened Form (ZKA-PQ/SF); and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) were used. The subjects were 187 athletes (mean age = 20.44 years, SD = 0.85; 91 females, 96 males) and 90 non-athletes (mean age = 20.34 years, SD = 1.65; 52 females, 38 males) who reported having nightmares.
Results: A total of 87 athletes (46.5%) reported having nightmare experiences. The athlete nightmare group scored significantly higher in neuroticism than the non-nightmare group, and their anxiety scores were significantly higher than those of non-athletes, who scored higher in aggressiveness, neuroticism, and sensation seeking. Moreover, anxiety, neuroticism, and sensation seeking positively predicted athletes' nightmare experiences.
Conclusions: Personality traits and anxiety levels can be effectively applied to predict athletes' nightmare experiences.