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How Being An Introvert Could Affect Your Sleep

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Being an introvert could be behind your lack of energy. According to a recent study, introverts are more likely to suffer from a poor night’s sleep than extroverts.

The researchers asked adults to complete a personality test before answering survey questions about their sleeping habits.

They found extroverts are 17.7% more satisfied with their levels of energy during the day than introverts.

What’s more, the results indicated introverts have nightmares more often than their extraverted counterparts and are more likely to fall asleep during the day.

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The research was conducted by a team of researchers working on behalf of bed company Best Mattress Brand.

For the study, the researchers asked 1,000 people to complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test.

The test is designed to reveal the characteristics of someone’s personality and as part of the results, a person is told whether they are an extrovert or introvert.

Under the test, extroversion and introversion are represented on a scale, but broadly speaking, extroverts prefer to focus on the outer world and take their energy from interaction with others, while introverts prefer to focus on their internal world and draw energy from quiet time alone.

After they were given a personality type, the researchers asked participants to share information about their sleeping patterns, levels of alertness and dreams.

Their results suggest extroverts are 17.7% more satisfied with their levels of energy during waking hours than introverts.

In addition, extroverts are 6.5.% more satisfied with their ability to sleep through the night than their introverted counterparts.

In comparison, introverts are also 14.8% less satisfied with the amount they feel alert during waking hours than extroverts.

These experiences may be related to the types of dreams that we have.

According to the data, extroverts have nightmares 8.3% less often than introverts. They are dream about their teeth falling out 14.2% less often and dream about punching something with no effect 14% less than introverts.

At the other end of the scale, the study found extroverts dream about traveling 13.9% more often than introverts.

With introverts struggling to have a restful night’s sleep, it appears many find it hard to keep their eyes open during the day.

Introverts are apparently 7.7% more likely to fall asleep when trying to stay awake than extroverts, which doesn’t bode well for those Monday morning meetings.

The study did not delve into why these patterns may appear, but simply looked at the key statistics for each personality group.

But whether you’re an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere close to the middle of the scale, poor sleep doesn’t have to be a fact of life.

Check out our top tips for getting a better night’s sleep here.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.