Researchers shed light on how personality and anxiety relate to insomnia

A recent study found that individuals with pronounced neuroticism and those who are less open to experience tend to report more severe insomnia symptoms. Anxiety appears to mediate the link between neuroticism and insomnia. The paper was published in the Journal of Sleep Research.

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early and being unable to return to sleep. People with insomnia often feel unrefreshed upon waking and may experience reduced energy throughout the day. The condition can be acute, lasting a few days or weeks, or chronic, persisting for months or longer. Causes include stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, medical conditions, or the use of stimulating substances such as caffeine.

Insomnia affects both the quality and quantity of sleep, leading to problems with attention, concentration, and memory. It can also increase irritability and negatively impact mood, work performance, and relationships. Chronic insomnia raises the risk of various health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, obesity, and weakened immune function.

Study author Bárbara Araújo Conway and her colleagues aimed to examine whether personality traits are associated with insomnia severity. They also explored whether anxiety and depression mediate or moderate the relationship between neuroticism and insomnia. The researchers hypothesized that individuals with insomnia would show higher levels of neuroticism compared to those without sleep difficulties.

Participants were divided into two groups: those with insomnia and those without sleep-related complaints. The insomnia group included 353 individuals, while the comparison group included 242 participants.

The average age of participants with insomnia was 40 years, compared to 37 years in the group without insomnia. Women made up 78% of the insomnia group and 86% of the control group.

All participants completed an online survey that included assessments of insomnia severity (using the Insomnia Severity Index), personality traits (using the NEO-FFI-R), and symptoms of depression and anxiety (using the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Rating Scales). The personality assessment measured five traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Neuroticism reflects a tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, or depression, and difficulty managing stress. Extraversion captures sociability, assertiveness, and the pursuit of positive emotions. Openness to experience reflects curiosity, creativity, and a preference for novelty. Agreeableness is associated with compassion, trust, and cooperativeness. Conscientiousness involves self-discipline, organization, and goal-directed behavior.

The results showed that individuals who scored higher in openness to experience and conscientiousness tended to report less severe insomnia symptoms. In contrast, those with higher levels of neuroticism tended to report more severe symptoms.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression were also linked to more severe insomnia. In fact, the associations between these emotional symptoms and insomnia were stronger than the associations between insomnia and any of the personality traits.

The researchers tested a statistical model to examine the relationships between personality traits, insomnia, and emotional symptoms. After accounting for anxiety and depression, only openness to experience remained associated with insomnia severity—and this link was very weak.

Further analysis suggested that anxiety may mediate the relationship between neuroticism and insomnia. That is, individuals high in neuroticism may be more prone to anxiety, which in turn is associated with more severe insomnia symptoms.

“The present study demonstrated that neuroticism and openness to experience personality traits are significant predictors of insomnia severity. In the case of neuroticism, the association is fully mediated by anxiety symptoms and moderated by depression symptoms,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between personality traits and insomnia. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.

The paper, “Personality traits and insomnia: direct and anxiety-mediated associations,” was authored by Bárbara Araújo Conway, Marwin Machay Indio do Brasil do Carmo, Helder Sergio Lira Soares Filho, Andrea Cecília Toscanini, Rosa Hasan, Marcela Mansur Alve, and Renatha El Rafihi-Ferreira.