So, last night was a bit of a rough one, sleep-wise. I had one of those dreams, you know? The kind that just sticks with you the whole morning, makes you feel a bit off.
It was a shooting dream. Yeah, not pleasant at all. Woke up in a cold sweat, heart doing a bit of a drum solo. Took me a good few minutes just to remember where I was, that it wasn’t real. Nasty stuff.
Trying to make sense of it
First thing I did, after eventually hauling myself out of bed and getting a glass of water, was just sit there for a bit. And think. What on earth brought that on? I always try to play detective with these things, try to figure out the trigger. It’s a bit of a habit.
- Did I watch some crazy action movie before bed? Don’t think so. Been trying to stick to comedies lately.
- Read any particularly heavy news right before sleep? Possibly. The news is always a bit of a minefield, isn’t it?
- Just generally stressed about something I’m not admitting? Yeah, that’s always a contender. Life’s got its pressures.
It’s a weird process, trying to unpack a dream like that. You’re basically sifting through mental clutter, looking for clues in a fog. Sometimes you find something, sometimes you don’t.
So, my usual “practice” when this kind of thing happens, when my brain decides to throw a horror movie at me, is pretty straightforward. I don’t like to let these bad dreams hang around and poison the whole day. Got things to do, you know?
I actually got up, found a pen, and scribbled down a few notes about it on a pad. Not the play-by-play of the dream, mind you, more like how it made me feel. Just getting it out of my skull and onto paper seems to help. It’s like I’m telling my subconscious, “Alright, I see you, I hear you, now pipe down.”
Then, I made absolutely sure to have a proper breakfast. Something I actually like, took my time with it. Tried to really focus on the taste, the coffee, just something to ground myself firmly in the here and now. Get my feet back on solid earth, so to speak, and out of that messed-up dream world.
Later in the morning, I also made a point to call my brother. We just shot the breeze, talked about his kids, the weather, nothing heavy. Didn’t even bring up the dream. Just connecting with a real person, having a normal, everyday conversation, that usually yanks me right out of whatever weird loop my brain was stuck in during the night. It’s like a reset button.
It’s funny, these intense dreams. They really take you back. Reminds me of this period, must be ten, fifteen years ago now, I was neck-deep in this monster project at my old gig. The pressure was insane. Seriously, I wasn’t sleeping right for months. And the dreams I was having back then? Man, totally off the wall. Not always scary like this shooting thing, but just… bizarre. Utterly bizarre.
I remember one clear as day: I dreamt the entire project, all the code, all the deadlines, was being managed by a committee of squirrels. And these squirrels, they only communicated by leaving cryptic nut-based messages. Woke up properly confused that morning, I tell ya. More baffled than anything. Took me a good hour and two coffees to even remember what my actual job was.
My point is, the brain’s a weird machine, isn’t it? It just chews on stuff in the background. And sometimes, when it’s processing stress or just random thoughts from the day, it spits out these technicolor nightmares or just plain goofy scenarios. That old job, for all its headaches, definitely taught me how stress can sneak up on you. You think you’re handling it, keeping a lid on it during the day, and then BAM! Your subconscious throws a squirrel convention at you in your sleep. Or worse, something like last night.
Moving On From It
So yeah, that shooting dream was definitely not a highlight of my week. Not something I want a repeat of. But, I went through my little process. Wrote it down, grounded myself with some good food, connected with someone real. By lunchtime, it had mostly faded into the background, like a bad song you can’t quite get out of your head but it’s quieter now.
It’s not about totally forgetting it, I don’t think you can always do that. It’s more about not letting it grab the steering wheel for your whole day. You just gotta acknowledge the damn thing, do what you can to shake it off, and then get on with your life. That’s been my practice, anyway. Seems to work, most of the time.
Tonight, I’m thinking a really boring book before bed. And maybe a cup of chamomile tea. Anything to encourage some less… dramatic dream content. Fingers crossed, eh?
