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[INFJ] Infj and dreams

Daenera

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Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
356
I was wondering how often do other infj dream, what do you dream about and what do dreams mean to you? Did any dream that you had ever influenced a decision you had to make in real life?
I'm an infj and I dream every time I fall a sleep, if I don't dream about anything (which rarely happens) I feel like I haven't slept at all.
My dreams are very vivid , in fact most of the times my dreams are lucid, I know that I'm dreaming and I can alter the content of the dream to some extent. Another thing that I found interesting is that I tend to absorb information from the outside world and incorporate in my dream so that it makes sense inside my dream. For example if the tv is on and there is some documentary about horses while I'm sleeping, I will dream that I'm riding a horse or something like that.
My dreams are often about flying or traveling somewhere, and there is always some purpose I have to fulfill.
I would really love to read how other infj experience dreams and what do dreams mean to them, but it also maybe interesting to read other types thoughts on the subject. :)
 

Lexicon

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I was wondering how often do other infj dream, what do you dream about and what do dreams mean to you? Did any dream that you had ever influenced a decision you had to make in real life?
I'm an infj and I dream every time I fall a sleep, if I don't dream about anything (which rarely happens) I feel like I haven't slept at all.
My dreams are very vivid , in fact most of the times my dreams are lucid, I know that I'm dreaming and I can alter the content of the dream to some extent. Another thing that I found interesting is that I tend to absorb information from the outside world and incorporate in my dream so that it makes sense inside my dream. For example if the tv is on and there is some documentary about horses while I'm sleeping, I will dream that I'm riding a horse or something like that.
My dreams are often about flying or traveling somewhere, and there is always some purpose I have to fulfill.
I would really love to read how other infj experience dreams and what do dreams mean to them, but it also maybe interesting to read other types thoughts on the subject. :)

:thinking: I'm not sure if how we dream is necessarily correlated with our type.. but who knows. I have various Thinker friends who have pretty cracked-up dreams, similar to my own.

Most of my dreams border on the surreal/macabre. Elaborate, winding plotlines. Some are lucid, some I can control, for a short while, but I usually lose that sense of awareness at one point or another. Like a frame change in a movie. I can't say I've consciously allowed my dreams to affect my judgement or decisions in waking life. Despite the whole, "oh INFJ are psychic" perception- I'm not much for mysticism- & I feel that entrusting my plans to my messy subconscious would be absurdly irresponsible. Dreams are merely a cognitive carwash to me, the brain's filing data away, & the unconscious imagination projects some entertaining translations in the form of private hallucinations to pass that downtime.

Close to waking, I will, from time to time, incorporate my immediate surroundings into my dream.

Example of environmental interference:
At my old apt, my [ISTP] roommate was playing Bob Marley quietly on his laptop nearby, as I dozed on the couch.
I had some dream of working in a huge movie theater/arena.. all the employees wore headsets to communicate. At some point Bob Marley's Redemption Song started to come through my earphones.

My coworkers seemed to enjoy it, they hummed as we passed one another. I began to hum, as well.
Woke myself up, doing so, just as the song was ending.

Lex: [awake] ..how long was I doing that..?
ISTP: last half of the song.
Lex: [scratches head] ...was I.. on-key, at least ?
ISTP: ..yea

(silence)

ISTP: Weirdo.



I document a lot of my dreams here.


If you have an hour to kill, this episode of RadioLab was pretty cool/relevant.
 

Fidelia

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I almost never dream. Even when I do, I can't remember enough of it most of the time to really piece the story line together. It's more a collection of feelings - unsettled, happy etc
 
N

ndovjtjcaqidthi

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Everyone dreams all night. It's only a matter of how many of them you remember. That has to do with how vivid they are.

I remember 4 - 5 every night.
 
I

Infinite Bubble

Guest
I love my dreams... they're never bad, and actually quite plausible most of the time. I used to have night terrors as a child. Also hallucinated things coming towards me minutes after awakening and being in a trance-state in which I would talk nonsense while my parents had no idea what was going on. The only nightmare I have now, ironically, is real life!
 

RaptorWizard

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Lex: [awake] ..how long was I doing that..?
ISTP: last half of the song.
Lex: [scratches head] ...was I.. on-key, at least ?
ISTP: ..yea

(silence)

ISTP: Weirdo.



I document a lot of my dreams here.

No way in hell is your roomate an ISTP if he thinks your crazy dream adventures are wierd and uncool, because half of the forum calls me a 5w4 TiNi ISTP, and I'm about as insane of a forum member as you will ever find when gazing across this infinite horizon (maybe with the exception of Zang).
 

Lexicon

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No way in hell is your roomate an ISTP if he thinks your crazy dream adventures are wierd and uncool, because half of the forum calls me a 5w4 TiNi ISTP, and I'm about as insane of a forum member as you will ever find when gazing across this infinite horizon (maybe with the exception of Zang).


Oh, he thought it was cool/entertaining, he was just affectionately making fun of me. xxTP's seem to have a penchant for that form of expression.

I read your post as, "grazing across this infinite horizon" - imagining the internet as a huge cattlefield of hooved creatures, munching their cud.
 

hazelsees

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Oh yes, dreaming.
Sometimes it seems that I never really rest because my mind is so active. My dreams wake me several times during the night. I like dreaming, but really just want my brain to rest.
Dreaming is good, because it does help me. If I've lost something, my dreams will tell me where I've lost it. That's useful.
On the other hand, my bad dreams are usually about ME being lost in some way. Or forgetting to do something. Often it involves my unorganized high school locker and frantically searching for something that is due OR that I've forgotten that I've enrolled in university classes and find myself behind, lost and near failing.
My favorite and most terrifying are when God speaks to me in dreams. Twice He's said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness..." from 2 Corinthians.
(Please realize, I don't think it's really God speaking to me.)
And the very most terrifying is when I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming, especially when I can't wake up from the dream that I'm dreaming.
This kind of dreaming made me very excited to see that movie, Inception. Does anyone else dream like that?
 

quixoticcrush

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I dream all the time. I can remember about 4 dreams a night. I've had dreams where I wake up, go to the restroom, then go back to sleep and my dream picks up where I woke up from. I also have premonitory dreams where I'll dream about a place or situation and a then a few days later I'll be in the place I dreamed about or in the situation. For example: I few weeks ago I had a dream that I was in a Japanese restaurant eating sushi and drinking saki. I remember sitting on the floor and having the bamboo wood sliding doors with the opaque windows. Not even a week later I was actually in a place just like that and I had completely forgot about the dream until I was there doing the thing in real life that I was doing in my dream.

I've even had dreams where I wake up and find out what was happening in my dream was actually happening in real life somewhere. Once I dreamed I was trying to put out a fire on the roof of a building and it was starting to spread to the adjoining building. I was trying to put it out with a checkered red and white table cloth. When I woke up and turned on the news I found out that a pizza place had burned overnight while I was sleeping and the insurance office in the adjoining building had been damaged by the fire.

Another eerie occurrence was when I dreamed that Nell Carter (from Give Me a Break; a show I remember watching as an extremely young child) came to me and stood at the foot of my bed and sang to me that I needed to be careful. I actually felt her touch my foot. The next day I heard on the news that she had died the night before in her sleep from complications of Diabetes. Not even a year later I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, which is a precursor to Diabetes.

I also believe to this day that I dreamed of 9/11 happening 5 years before it did. I was in a big city and tall buildings were on fire and there was ash and death all around me. Creepy. I even remember seeing the steel from the buildings jutting out of the rubble.
 

Lexicon

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And the very most terrifying is when I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming, especially when I can't wake up from the dream that I'm dreaming.
This kind of dreaming made me very excited to see that movie, Inception. Does anyone else dream like that?

:yes: I've had several meta dreams.. some good, some.. demonic. Nonetheless cool. I wouldn't trade my brain's dysfunctional synaptic fireworks show for anything.
 

cafe

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I almost never remember my dreams. When I do, it's usually pretty obvious what they mean. Like the recurring one where I dreamed I was driving and realized I was sleeping and I shouldn't be sleeping while I was driving so I'd wake myself up only to discover I was actually in bed and supposed to be sleeping. Over and over because I was learning how to drive and it freaked me out. IOW, somewhat weird dreams about mundane things and that have obvious, relatively normal meanings.

My husband has crazy and vivid dreams and so does one of my daughters. He's an INTP and she is an IXFP, I think.
 

Luv Deluxe

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I love my dreams... they're never bad, and actually quite plausible most of the time. I used to have night terrors as a child. Also hallucinated things coming towards me minutes after awakening and being in a trance-state in which I would talk nonsense while my parents had no idea what was going on. The only nightmare I have now, ironically, is real life!

Have you read anything about sleep paralysis? This sounds similar. Not quite the same, maybe, but definitely worth looking up if you haven't before. I've had one episode and it scared me so greatly that I didn't want to sleep for a week.
 
I

Infinite Bubble

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Have you read anything about sleep paralysis? This sounds similar. Not quite the same, maybe, but definitely worth looking up if you haven't before. I've had one episode and it scared me so greatly that I didn't want to sleep for a week.

Yes, I have tried to figure out what it was for a while and sleep paralysis is likely. Although this symptom of night terrors fit with what was happening after awaking too:

Wikipedia said:
Although it seems like children are awake during a night terror, they will appear confused, be inconsolable and/or unresponsive to attempts to communicate with them, and may not recognize others familiar to them.
 

Daenera

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Despite the whole, "oh INFJ are psychic" perception- I'm not much for mysticism- & I feel that entrusting my plans to my messy subconscious would be absurdly irresponsible.
Yeah I don't tend to do that as well, but I was thinking more like when you consciously over think something and don't know what to do, sometimes you'll dream about it and you'll get a clearer perspective what is it that you really want to do, what feels right.
Example of environmental interference:
At my old apt, my [ISTP] roommate was playing Bob Marley quietly on his laptop nearby, as I dozed on the couch.
I had some dream of working in a huge movie theater/arena.. all the employees wore headsets to communicate. At some point Bob Marley's Redemption Song started to come through my earphones.

My coworkers seemed to enjoy it, they hummed as we passed one another. I began to hum, as well.
Woke myself up, doing so, just as the song was ending.

Lex: [awake] ..how long was I doing that..?
ISTP: last half of the song.
Lex: [scratches head] ...was I.. on-key, at least ?
ISTP: ..yea

(silence)

ISTP: Weirdo.

hahaha cool dream. I love how you were worried about being on-key haha :D
Thanks for the episode of RadioLab I have some time now, I'll check it out :)
 

Daenera

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Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
356
I love my dreams... they're never bad, and actually quite plausible most of the time. I used to have night terrors as a child. Also hallucinated things coming towards me minutes after awakening and being in a trance-state in which I would talk nonsense while my parents had no idea what was going on.

I can't say I relate to the hallucinating part but I have awoken from scary dreams(which at the same time were very realistic) and felt my heart beating so fast I needed few minutes to get back to normal and convince myself it was only a dream.
The only nightmare I have now, ironically, is real life!
Hey at least it's not boring :p
 

Lexicon

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Ah, that's another thing I have from time to time- night terrors. Those do not occur during normal REM state [dream-time], & most often just involve me jerking awake with a loud gasp/broken-off scream. Takes a moment for me to get my bearings. Just a blind sense of fear/panic. Occasionally I'll see some dark figure in my room, but usually there's nothing. It's more disturbing to those around me than distressing for me personally; I'm used to it, and go right back to sleep/may not remember.

I don't associate this with type, it's more a PTSD mental glitch for me, most likely. That, & a possible genetic predisposition for parasomnia disorders. My dad talked a lot in his sleep (maybe ENTP's just never shut up, hah). My brother talked, walked/ran around in his sleep. Some other relatives have a history of that sort of stuff, too. /shrug
 

Daenera

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Mar 10, 2013
Messages
356
Oh yes, dreaming.
Sometimes it seems that I never really rest because my mind is so active. My dreams wake me several times during the night. I like dreaming, but really just want my brain to rest.
You don't know how much I can relate to this. I usually have very hard time falling asleep because my brain is like f*** you, now is the time to be most active, let's go over what have you done wrong today, let's explore the possibilities that the future might bring, let's imagine conversations that are most likely never to happen etc. :p
Dreaming is good, because it does help me. If I've lost something, my dreams will tell me where I've lost it. That's useful.
Hey why that doesn't happen to me?!:dry::D
On the other hand, my bad dreams are usually about ME being lost in some way. Or forgetting to do something. Often it involves my unorganized high school locker and frantically searching for something that is due OR that I've forgotten that I've enrolled in university classes and find myself behind, lost and near failing.
I can relate to this as well, but this kinda of dreams are some what rare in my case, they happen when I have exams coming up. (just to make me even more nervous I guess lol)
My favorite and most terrifying are when God speaks to me in dreams. Twice He's said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness..." from 2 Corinthians.
(Please realize, I don't think it's really God speaking to me.)
I never had that kind of experience, although once I dreamt my cat spoke to me and he said: "Some people just don't like their parents."- like what hell...??:shock: hahah :D
(On a more serious note I imagine those dreams you have must be an extraordinary experience :))
And the very most terrifying is when I'm dreaming that I'm dreaming, especially when I can't wake up from the dream that I'm dreaming.
This kind of dreaming made me very excited to see that movie, Inception. Does anyone else dream like that?
Once more time I can relate to what you wrote: I remember a dream I had when I was in high school-I would wake up, get ready for school only to realize I was dreaming and then I would wake up and get ready for school, except again I was dreaming, and this happened around 4 or 5 times before I actually woke up. It might had something to do with me being to tried to wake up, and my brain decided to have some fun with me lol :D
 

Daenera

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Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
356
I dream all the time. I can remember about 4 dreams a night. I've had dreams where I wake up, go to the restroom, then go back to sleep and my dream picks up where I woke up from.
This happens to me only when I don't like the dream, it's like a Murphy's law or something not only that I cannot continue the dream that I liked if I wake up, and usually I wake up at the most interesting part. aaarrrgggh :D
I also have premonitory dreams where I'll dream about a place or situation and a then a few days later I'll be in the place I dreamed about or in the situation. For example: I few weeks ago I had a dream that I was in a Japanese restaurant eating sushi and drinking saki. I remember sitting on the floor and having the bamboo wood sliding doors with the opaque windows. Not even a week later I was actually in a place just like that and I had completely forgot about the dream until I was there doing the thing in real life that I was doing in my dream.
That's really interesting and intriguing, can't say I've experienced some thing like that, maybe the closest thing to a premonitory dream for me is when I would dream about a person and I'll see that person the next day. (what makes this worthy of a mention it's that usually it's about some person I don't see very often, that I don't expect to see at all.)
I've even had dreams where I wake up and find out what was happening in my dream was actually happening in real life somewhere. Once I dreamed I was trying to put out a fire on the roof of a building and it was starting to spread to the adjoining building. I was trying to put it out with a checkered red and white table cloth. When I woke up and turned on the news I found out that a pizza place had burned overnight while I was sleeping and the insurance office in the adjoining building had been damaged by the fire.
Another eerie occurrence was when I dreamed that Nell Carter (from Give Me a Break; a show I remember watching as an extremely young child) came to me and stood at the foot of my bed and sang to me that I needed to be careful. I actually felt her touch my foot. The next day I heard on the news that she had died the night before in her sleep from complications of Diabetes. Not even a year later I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, which is a precursor to Diabetes.
I also believe to this day that I dreamed of 9/11 happening 5 years before it did. I was in a big city and tall buildings were on fire and there was ash and death all around me. Creepy. I even remember seeing the steel from the buildings jutting out of the rubble.
Wow, now that's very intriguing. How do you explain having this kind of dreams?
 

Daenera

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Mar 10, 2013
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356
Yeah I know a lot of different types that tend to dream a lot , but it seems to me infj's who dream often are the most interested in understanding the meaning of dreams or at least they like analyzing them (for whatever reason), somehow they seem to be the most enthusiastic about the subject :)
 
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