Background

Several studies have been conducted in Japan and China on the effects of nightmare disorder on mental health and the relationship between dream recall and personality traits.

Aims

This study aims to improve the situation of nightmare disorder by examining the relationship between nightmares with and without awakenings, lucid dreaming (dreams with self-awareness of dreaming and the script may be controllable in some cases), and personality traits based on the Big Five (extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism). It is also a comparative study between Japanese and Chinese.

Method

Web-based questionnaires including the TIPI-C (Li, 2013), TIPI-J (Oshio, Abe, & Carotoni, 2012), questions on lucid dreaming and average sleep duration were developed. Eight hundred and fifty Japanese and Chinese university students participated voluntarily.

Results

Among Japanese university students, 294 (74.8%) recalled lucid dreams (subjective dreams), and 31 (7.8%) of them recalled lucid dreams frequently. Among Chinese university students, 374 (81.8%) of them recalled lucid dreams, and 85 (18.5%) of them recalled lucid dreams frequently.Multiple regression analysis of all data showed that Openness had a positive influence on lucid dreaming with control (dream control) . Agreeableness had a negative effect on lucid dreaming with self-awareness, while openness had a positive effect on lucid dreaming with self-awareness. Sleep duration had a significant positive effect on lucid dreams with control.In data from Chinese university students,only extroversion had a positive effect on lucid dreaming.

Conclusion

This study could be a primary resource for understanding personality traits, sleep, and dream research among Chinese and Japanese university students. In addition, lucid dreaming is listed as a treatment for nightmares in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Guidelines. This study may lead to the prevention of nightmares and the promotion of lucid dreaming experiences by studying those who are more likely to have nightmares and those who are more likely to have lucid dreams.