Nightmares in Swiss elite athletes: Associated factors

Nightmares, defined as extremely dysphoric dreams, can cause significant distress in everyday life if they occur frequently. Their aetiology is based on a disposition-stress model. As elite athletes often experience high stress levels, the present study investigated factors that might be associated with nightmare frequency in a large cohort of 2297 Swiss elite athletes (1066 women, 1231 men) with a mean age of 22.05 ± 7.53 years. In total, about 6% of the athletes reported frequent nightmares (once a week or more often). We found that well-established factors like female gender and general stress levels were related to nightmare frequency. To a smaller extent, the number of training hours, lost training days due to illness, and having early training sessions were also associated with nightmare frequency. Sport discipline was not related to nightmare frequency. An unexpected finding was the association between late alcohol intake 4 hr prior to bedtime and nightmare frequency. Our findings support the idea that stress related to practicing sports might affect nightmare frequency. Future research should study whether inventions designed for athletes suffering from frequent nightmares are beneficial for them and might even improve their athletic performance.