Insomnia and Personality-A Network Approach.

Kim Dekker,Eus Van Someren,Tessa Blanken

doi:10.3390/brainsci7030028

Kim Dekker, Eus Van Someren + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci7030028

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Abstract

Studies on personality traits and insomnia have remained inconclusive about which traits show the most direct associations with insomnia severity. It has moreover hardly been explored how traits relate to specific characteristics of insomnia. We here used network analysis in a large sample (N = 2089) to obtain an integrated view on the associations of personality traits with both overall insomnia severity and different insomnia characteristics, while distinguishing direct from indirect associations. We first estimated a network describing the associations among the five factor model personality traits and overall insomnia severity. Overall insomnia severity was associated with neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness. Subsequently, we estimated a separate network describing the associations among the personality traits and each of the seven individual items of the Insomnia Severity Index. This revealed relatively separate clusters of daytime and nocturnal insomnia complaints, that both contributed to dissatisfaction with sleep, and were both most directly associated with neuroticism and conscientiousness. The approach revealed the strongest direct associations between personality traits and the severity of different insomnia characteristics and overall insomnia severity. Differentiating them from indirect associations identified the targets for improving Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia with the highest probability of effectively changing the network of associated complaints.

Highlights

Insomnia is a common burden in the general population [1,2]
In agreement with previous reports, the simple Pearson correlations suggested that the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) sum score was positively associated with neuroticism and agreeableness
Unlike previous findings, openness was significantly associated with ISI sum score

Summary

Introduction

Insomnia disorder can be diagnosed if subjective problems with initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, or waking up too early occur at least three nights a week, persist for at least three months, and are accompanied by at least one form of subjective daytime impairments like fatigue, malaise, or difficulties with concentration [3]. The diagnosis of insomnia disorder requires the presence of both nocturnal and daytime complaints. The causes of insomnia are still poorly understood [4], a prevailing theory by Spielman et al suggests the involvement of three types of factors [5]: premorbid predispositions, precipitating factors, and perpetuating factors. It has been suggested that certain personality traits may predispose to insomnia [6,7,8,9,10]. The study of personality traits in insomnia may provide clues about the

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