Nightmares and the Big Five Personality Traits: A Systematic Review and Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Our objective was to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis to enhance our comprehension of the Big Five personality traits that are associated with nightmare frequency and distress and might thus serve as risk factors for frequent and distressing nightmares. The inclusion criteria for studies were the use of a validated questionnaire to measure the Big Five personality traits and the measurement of nightmare distress and/or frequency in an adult population. Relevant studies were searched on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. Risk of bias was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool for analytical cross-sectional studies. Three-level meta-analyses were performed. Ten studies, all with a low risk of bias, were included. Due to the lack of studies on this topic, we were only able to conduct meta-analyses on nightmare frequency with openness and neuroticism. The pooled Fisher’s z between nightmare frequency and openness was z = 0.06 (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.02, 0.10], p, .01). The pooled Fisher’s z between nightmare frequency and neuroticism was z = 0.30 (95% CI [0.23, 0.38], p, .001). The association between nightmare frequency and neuroticism is small to moderate, while the association between nightmare frequency and openness is negligible to small. Our results imply that neuroticism is a greater predisposing factor for nightmare frequency than openness.