[INFJ] INFJs and sleep

[Fidelia]

I read recently that INFJs require 9-10 hours of sleep because they have a very large working memory and also exhaust their emotional resources which has a toll on physical resources. This was the first time I heard anything like that. I know for me I really should get 9 hours of sleep to work well. What about all of you? And do you think this is true for other NF types?

I have been tired ever since I can remember, despite checking into all the usual possibilities (iron, thyroid, vitamin deficiencies etc etc). In the summer if I wake up when I feel rested, it would usually be 9 hours from when I went to bed.

I find I can't get to sleep until everyone else in the house has gone to bed. I think it is because things are quiet and I can think. Unfortunately that usually means going to bed late and getting up early.

 

[ReadingRainbows]

I sleep very little. 6 hours a day ussally.

 

[Phantonym]

Unfortunately, I've had to restrict myself to 7-8 hours of sleep because I actually need to get work done. Otherwise, 9-10 hours would be the average bedtime for me. I just love to sleep and haven't connected it to my NFness before.

 

[Sniffles]

I sleep very little. 6 hours a day ussally.

+1 same here.

 

[whimsical]

I'm a lot like you in that I usually do go to bed after everyone else in the house has. Typically I stay up into the early morning because I enjoy the quietness and the solitude of the night.

 

[Ruthie]

I've had insomnia my entire life (an odd diagnosis of plain old insomnia, not connected with anything else) and I've taken something for it since I was 16. I think I used to do fine with very little sleep, but with the medication I generally need at least 7 hours to "feel good." It's been so long since I went without the medication, hard to know for sure how much sleep I would need now anyway.

 

[Charizmatic]

i can sleep for 12 hours

 

[Lexicon]

I can sleep for days. Literally. Or not sleep for days. Also literally. Actually I've been doing that for about a year now. Don't do it. Too much static in your head afterwards.

When life's less chaotic and I actually take care of myself, I'm best on 6-7 hours of sleep. 8's pushing it. Beyond that, I tend to feel quite groggy and unmotivated for the rest of the day, and likely go to bed early.

I dunno if it matters or not, in terms of relevance to the OP.. but.. my working memory and longterm memory seem to store more information than many of the people I interact with regularly. People have commented on my ability to accurately recall events/etc, ever since I was a kid. I can't accurately say it's "superior," but I rarely have trouble recalling a vast array of aspects of situations, information, etc. I can memorize entire scripts in about a week, if I'm doing a lot of work within it [either acting in any size role, or doing backstage work, like sound FX, and referring to the script for cues we can all agree on, etc. I'd often help people randomly with their lines throughout the production.. and I could always tell if someone had jumped a line, or it wasn't verbatim.. though usually that part doesn't matter.. I just saw it.] I've creeped out family members by describing flashes of memory from the brief time I lived in CT when I was a over a year old. I described a highchair to my mother, very specifically. Yellow paisely, plastic-like material. The seat was torn on one part and as uncomfortable to have my leg on. Anyway, that highchair was thrown out when we moved, before I turned 2. Other little things like that.
Give me a phone number once and I'll never forget it. Longer sets of numbers, too. Like calling cards, or credit cards.
It always frustrated me, though, that I could recall so many different things, kinds of details.. but for the life of me I couldn't recall formulas for equations in math.. or how to apply them.. Exams rolled around, & I'd mix up several formulas and make some bizarre attempt to complete my test.
Teachers were pretty much like... "wtf? ...I don't even know.. what you did.."

 

[amelie]

I tend to sleep about 5-6 hours, and then catch up. I need the quiet time to myself to recharge after everyone else has gone to bed, and I like to be sure that everything is okay with everyone else (kids are sleeping, hubby is sleeping) before I feel okay to rest myself.

I am able to remember personal details about people that is sometimes really surprising - people ask me how I remembered who their best friend in elementary school, or whatever. I think that just has to do with my level of interest in others, but I could be wrong.

 

[Oddly Refined]

My sleep goes in cycles depending on my stress levels. There are nights that I will take extra time to veg depending on how I feel. I shoot for 6-8 hours every night.

 

[Storiesandstorms]

Wow...this is interesting! I really do require a lot of sleep to feel actually rested. I am a teacher, so right now, in the summer, I am getting to sleep as long as I like. However, during the school year, I get about 6-7 hours a night. Next week I actually have to go to a week of workshops so it will be back to the school schedule for a little bit...I can see myself being sleepy...
I also agree with those who have said they like to go to bed after everyone else has, just to have some alone time that was mine. I live alone now but it was like that at times before.

 

[Tiltyred]

I need a lot of sleep. I often spend one whole weekend day in bed. Especially when I'm working really hard, which for me means interacting with more people than usual, I need it to recover from the week.

 

[Lauren Ashley]

This thread is right on time because I've been noticing how much sleep I need. I've been getting close to 8 hours, and yet still feel tired. I was just about to google "ways to have more energy." I think my long work hours, having to extrovert, be around people, and having to wait for things is killing me.

My brain hurts.

*dead*

 

[iwakar]

I can function "acceptably" with 6 hours of sleep. But if I had it my way, a solid 10 hours every night would make me right as rain.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

Including naps right?

 

[nightning]

Currently I'm dealing with the standard 7-8 h night's sleep. If I'm tired out I do 9hish. I wake up by 10am no matter what. I do enjoy early afternoon (2-3pm) naps though.

 

[mwv6r]

I've had insomnia my entire life (an odd diagnosis of plain old insomnia, not connected with anything else) and I've taken something for it since I was 16. I think I used to do fine with very little sleep, but with the medication I generally need at least 7 hours to "feel good." It's been so long since I went without the medication, hard to know for sure how much sleep I would need now anyway.

I've been an insomniac from a young age as well! (I was on medication for a long time but luckily a few years ago I found a really good sleep doctor who helped wean me off the meds -- you might want to look into sleep restriction therapy because that's the main thing that helped me; please feel free to contact me if you're interested.)

Anyway, have any other INXJ's out there struggled with long-term insomnia? I've read that INFJs are perhaps the most anxious type and that's definitely been my experience. In addition to the insomnia, when I'm stressed out I get the feeling that I "can't breathe." Doctors have found no physical basis for this so it's apparently in my head. My INTJ cousin is the same way, but I haven't met anyone else who suffers this -- who knows, maybe it's some kind of INXJ connection?

 

[the state i am in]

9 is perfect for me. i'm usually at my sunniest, lightest, most carefree, nicest, most generous, least paranoid, most extraverted, and pretty much feel inspired no matter what. i usually get 7-8 and if i get 6 i turn into a kafka book. it's scary.

it makes sense tho. i need a lot of re-charge time, which to me means sift, sift, sift. it's like during the course of the day i take out every shirt, every toy, every idea i have in my entire arsenal and at the end of teh day i don't even have a place to sleep. sleeping seems so necessary for Ni types, as does some serious cleaning/maintenance time.

i've found i also get anxiety when i refuse to let myself let sleeping dogs lie. the desire to turn things over one more time, excitement over possibilities, one more note in my notebook, it just undermines my ability to turn off Ni and let go.

one thing i've found that sounds absurd and makes me cringe as i imagine myself typing this is a sleep track. it uses sounds at various wavelengths to support sleeping patterns. i have one for a night sleep cycle that i find mostly throwaway. but included was a 20 minute power nap that ALWAYS works and makes me feel like i've just spent 20 minutes putting all the clutter in my head into the right place, into the cupboards, etc. it's very very helpful, especially at between 4-6 pm when your body gets tired. (i went to a tcm and ayurvedic doctor who symbolized parasympathetic nervous activity and adrenal exhaustion and anxiety/anxious behaviors as weak kidney function. he said 4-6 pm was when the kidney function was peaking in terms of detoxifying the body and cleaning it up from earlier stress responses. i was taking adaptogen tinctures for a while, which seemed to help.)

and lexicon, with regards to your memory, here's to the quiet sounds of crickets and green envy. i dl'ed a program called supermemo to try to keep it all straight, but my memory is so atrocious except for bands, philosophical concepts, food, and things people said (but NEVER remembered verbatim) that it seems like a lost cause.

 

[SilkRoad]

I'm so far from being a morning person it's not even funny. Getting up is torture almost every single morning, unless I can sleep as late as I want (which often ends up being counter-productively late) and then get up very very slowly, with lots of cups of tea involved.

These days I'm sleeping between 7 and 8 hours but it never feels like enough. I then tend to over-compensate and sleep in, which often leaves me too tired as well. I have no idea what my optimum sleeping time is. But I do know it's partly my fault I'm so tired all the time...I almost always stay up too late, pottering, thinking, reading, having "me time." Even if I get home from somewhere very very late, I am incapable of going to bed immediately. I have to have a cup of tea and rebalance my brain on my own. I suspect this is quite INFJ.

 

[ladypinkington]

I wonder if it has to do with working out emotions and feelings during dreams?
I find that I need more sleep because I spend so much of my sleep processing emotions in my dreams that that taxes me as well- so I need sleep for my sleep- kind of like needing a vacation from a vacation.

It is like this- I encounter stories in my dreams that are ways for me to further analyze my life and those around me and life itself- I learn things and emotionally digest everything just like in real life- and perhaps after I have processed what I have needed- got the lesson or observation or venting that my subconscious needed- then my mind can truely rest and be at ease and be put on cruise control and enjoy the ride and sleep. I need like 9 to 10 hours to achieve that easily.

I find that I have to reflect on the day before I can sleep-I replay every single thing that happened during the day that I can remember and the things said or not said- facial expressions and tones- and wonder about the meanings of it all- life, people and the universe. It takes me an hour to fall asleep if not two. I have to do that before I can sleep- unless I am so exhausted that it overwhelms my need to reflect which doesn't happen hardly at all.