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. 2022 Oct 8;19(19):12900.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912900.

The Relationship between Nightmare Experience and Athletes' Personality Traits and Anxiety

Youteng Gan  1 , Ruohang Wang  1 , Jiangang Li  1 , Xueyu Wang  1 , Hongying Fan  1
Affiliations

The Relationship between Nightmare Experience and Athletes' Personality Traits and Anxiety

Youteng Gan et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

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.

Keywords: NEQ; SAS; ZKA-PQ/SF; negative dreams; stimulating experience.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

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