How Personality Affects Sleep

Personality is formed by the nature of temperament and the acquired trait of character. Can our personality then influence how well we sleep?

A new study, The Influence of Affective Temperaments on Sleep Quality in a General Population Sample: Data Report from the CHRIS Study, led by Dr. Ettore Favaretto in collaboration with researchers from Eurac Research's Institute for Biomedicine and international partners, explores this question focusing on the role of temperament using data from one of Europe’s best characterized studies from the general population: the CHRIS study in South Tyrol.

Temperament Shapes Sleep Quality

The study analyzed data from 3,701 participants in the CHRIS study (Cooperative Health Research in South Tyrol), a long-term health study examining how genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors impact health, conducted by Eurac Research and the South Tyrol Health Authority (SABES). Participants were aged 18-65, (54% females, 46% males), and all came from the Vinschgau/Val Venosta administrative district, offering a unique insight into the health patterns of this Alpine population.

To explore the link between the innate trait of personality due to multiple temperamental dispositions and sleep, the researchers used two main tools:

• The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): A widely used self-administered questionnaire assessing sleep quality over the past month, including a global score and aspects like subjective sleep quality, sleep continuity, and use of sleep medications. Higher scores indicate poorer sleep quality.

• The TEMPS-M (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego – Münster Version): A self-administered questionnaire measuring five temperaments: anxious, cyclothymic, depressive, irritable, and hyperthymic. Each individual was rated on all five subscales, helping identify patterns of temperament that may relate to aspects of sleep quality.

Key Findings

The study found that people with relatively higher scores on the anxious, depressive, or cyclothymic temperament scales reported worse sleep, reflected by higher PSQI scores. In contrast, those with hyperthymic high temperament scores tended to have better sleep quality.

Interestingly, when accounting for the possible intervening trait of anxiety (a person’s general tendency to feel anxious in different situations), the effect of the hyperthymic temperament on sleep was reversed from negative to mildly positive (worst sleep quality). The effects of anxious and depressive temperaments were still independent of lifestyles and trait anxiety to compromise the quality of sleep. Albeit attenuated by consideration of trait anxiety, cyclothymic temperamental scores had greater effect on sleep quality than hyperthymic scores. Overall, evidence suggests that anxiety may have a critical role modulating multiple temperamental dispositions in sleep disruption.

Implications for Public Health

While corroboration in prospective settings is warranted, in the current study participants with cyclothymic, depressive, or anxious high temperamental scores were more likely to use sleep medication, and potentially at risk of medication misuse. Health protocol developments may favor screening for temperamental disposition in territorial health services for tailored prescription of sleep medications and non-pharmacological interventions such as sleep hygiene advice or psychological support.

Authors of the research paper: Ettore Favaretto, Martin Gögele, Fulvio Bedani, Simone Giovannini, Peter P. Pramstaller, Giulio Perugi, Andreas Erfurth, Gabriele Sani, Andrew A. Hicks, Roberto Melotti.

The research paper was published in Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol. 380.

Read the abstract and the full paper here:
Full Paper: ScienceDirect - Journal of Affective Disorders (available for free until May, 14 2025)
Abstract: Pup Med


Photo-credit: Eurac Research, Pexels_Vanya Oboleninov