A study by researchers from the American Psychological Association found that people who are more open to experience tend to have more nightmares, and more neurotic people have more nightmares. Study published magazine dreaming.
A nightmare is a long and unpleasant dream. Nightmares usually happen during REM sleep. REM sleep is an increase in brain activity similar to wakefulness, an increase in blood flow, heart rate, rapid eye movements, etc. .
In this study, the researchers wanted to find out who had the most nightmares. The authors conducted an online survey of 225 people. All participants reported how often they had bad dreams, and also filled out questionnaires to identify personality traits and coping strategies (a scale created by the authors of this study to assess the strategies an individual uses to cope with stress).
The results showed that participants with more neuroticism (the tendency to experience negative emotions more often and get upset easily by stress and other difficult situations) tended to have more nightmares. People with an increased openness to experience (prone to intellectual curiosity, creativity, and preference for novelty and diversity) reported having nightmares more often, but hardly worrying about them.
An additional statistical analysis reported that participants who were more extroverted and volunteers who were more accommodating had fewer nightmares.