1196 Personality Traits Are Associated with Nightmare Frequency and Distress
Michael Price, Odalis G Garcia, Jeremy Hamm, Katherine A. Duggan
Sleep May 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsaf090.1196 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional study Longitudinal Preregistered Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 436 |
| Population | Participants from Wave 5 of the NDSU National COVID study; mean age 59.20 years, range 22-93, 55.96% female |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Neuroticism was the strongest statistically significant correlate of nightmare frequency and nightmare disorder index (r=.26 and .25), with conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness showing weaker negative associations; openness was not significantly associated, and no strong evidence of curvilinearity was found. The authors argue these results emphasize the relevance of self-regulatory personality processes for sleep and dream-related distress. |
Abstract
Many studies involving the relationship between personality and nightmare frequency (NF), common in cross-sectional data, have only looked at neuroticism in isolation, assumed a linear relationship, or did not include nightmare disorder index (NDI) to determine if personality traits might predict NDI over NF. While neuroticism is the personality trait most commonly associated with nightmares, theoretically due to negative emotionality or emotional instability, including all five traits allows for a more holistic outlook into this relationship. Particularly, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and (low) neuroticism tend to form a higher order stability composite, whereas openness and extraversion are more related to adaptability to new experiences. Our pre-registered data analysis comes from Wave 5 of the NDSU National COVID study, where participants completed questionnaires about the Big Five, NF, and NDI (N=436; mean age = 59.20, range 22-93; 55.96% female). Pearson correlations were used to examine bivariate associations between personality and nightmares, and Loess curves were used to evaluate possible curvilinear associations. Neuroticism was the strongest, statistically significant correlate of NF and NDI (r =.26 and.25, respectively), followed by conscientiousness (r = -.16 and -.14). Next, extraversion was correlated with NF and NDI (r = -.11 and -.12), while agreeableness was only correlated with NF (r = -.16, p=.001). Associations for openness were not statistically significant (p≥.26), and we found no strong evidence of curvilinearity. Our results clarify the relevance of personality for nightmares. In line with prior studies, we find moderate associations between neuroticism and nightmares, as well as three of the other Big Five traits (conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness). Overall, these traits emphasize the relevance of self-regulatory personality processes for sleep. We also found similar associations for NF and distress, highlighting the relevance of self-regulatory traits for multiple dream-related sequelae. These findings highlight the need for longitudinal research on personality and nightmares, which can inform clinical work using personality as a tool to identify people at risk of nightmares and identify whether personality can be leveraged in clinical interventions. This research was supported in part by grants from NHLBI (HL143741), NIA (AG075117), NIGMS (GM114748), NSF GRFP, and NDSU ORCA.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insomnia Symptoms, Nightmares, and Suicidal Ideation in a College Student Sample Undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States | 2011 | Observational cross-sectional survey | n = 583 |
| Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese adults from the community, mean age 40.9 years (SD 5.5,... | 2010 | Cross-sectional survey with subsequent clinical evaluation (two-phase design) | n = 8,558 |
| Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Adults (general population sample) | 2003 | Cross-sectional survey with structural equation modeling | n = 444 |
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |