Executive Functioning and Personality Traits in Insomnia Disorder: A Preliminary Report on the Clinical Importance of Objective and Subjective Reduction of Total Sleep Time

To confirm and extend previous findings on the relationships between executive functioning (EF) and insomnia, as well as the available evidence on the associations between personality traits and insomnia, 30 consecutively-admitted insomnia participants and 30 community dwelling adult participants matched on age, gender and educational level, were administered a battery of EF measures and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Insomnia participants underwent two full-night polysomnographic (PSG) recording, followed by a morning assessment of subjective sleep parameters. A misperception index (MI) was computed in order to identify participants characterized by objective insomnia and non-objective insomnia. The EF performance associations between insomnia and poor performance on selected executive functions was confirmed. However, the objective insomnia and non-objective insomnia sub-groups show significant differences on specific EF indices, as well as on dysfunctional personality dimensions.