Okay, this weird dream kept hitting me night after night – getting shot. Felt super real every time, woke up with my heart pounding like crazy. It was messing with my head during the day too, making me jumpy. Had to actually do something about it, you know? Just ignoring it wasn’t working. So here’s the mess I went through trying to find some peace.
Step 1: I Just Had To Admit It Was Screwing With Me
First thing, I stopped pretending it was “just a dream” or no big deal. That whole “shake it off” thing? Total lie for me. Lying in bed after waking up panicked, soaked in sweat – yeah, it was having an effect. I literally sat down one morning with my notebook and wrote: “This dream scares me. It’s messing up my sleep. I need to deal with it.” Felt silly at first, but somehow writing it down made it real, and that was the starting point.
Step 2: Got Real About What Was Stressing Me Out
Heard somewhere that bad dreams can come from daytime stress. Started paying attention. Noticed things like:
- Constantly checking work emails way past midnight, brain buzzing.
- This annoying argument with a friend that I kept replaying in my head.
- Worrying about money stuff I couldn’t control right then.
I was basically carrying a backpack full of bricks, and my brain was using the dream to say, “Hey dummy, this bag is heavy!” Figured if I lightened the daytime load, maybe the night stuff would chill too.
Step 3: Tried Turning Down The Noise Before Bed
My usual pre-sleep routine? Scrolling doom news, maybe watching a loud action show. Yeah, dumb. Experimented for a week with just cutting off the screens an hour before sleep. Instead, I did super boring stuff:
- Read a physical book (an actual paperback!).
- Just sat quietly listening to calming music, no words.
- Sometimes literally just stared at the ceiling fan – anything quiet.
Hard habit to break, felt restless at first. But those nights? The dream either didn’t come, or it felt less intense. Like turning down the volume knob in my head.
Step 4: Wrote It Down & Gave It A Stupid Ending
After a milder dream episode, I described the whole thing in my notebook while it was fresh. Got all the details: where I was, what got shot (it was my shoulder, weirdly specific), the feeling. Then, the therapist I talked to years ago popped into my head – something she said about rewriting scary things. So I literally wrote a new ending: Instead of pain, the bullet turned into stupid birdseed. Huge flock of pigeons showed up, ate the seeds, and flew away. Wrote that down too. Laughed while doing it, felt ridiculous. But guess what? Next time the dream started up, my brain seemed to remember the pigeons. Didn’t stop it completely, but the fear spike? Lower.
Step 5: Finally Moved My Body Differently
Always thought of exercise as just for fitness. Heard stress gets stored physically? Decided to try something besides just weights. Started doing these slow evening walks, focusing on how my feet hit the ground. Also, dug up an old yoga app and did these stupidly simple stretches before bed – stuff like twisting gently or lying on my back breathing slowly. Wasn’t aiming for Olympic gymnastics, just trying to shake the tension out of my shoulders where I felt the dream shot. Didn’t always feel a big change, but over a few days, my shoulders felt less like rocks. Slept a bit heavier. Fewer jumpy wake-ups.
Where Am I Now?
The dream hasn’t vanished like magic. It still pokes its head in sometimes. But it’s different. Doesn’t feel like an ambush anymore. Waking up panicked? That’s rare now. More often, I just go, “Oh, that weird dream again,” roll over, and zonk back out. Combining all this stuff – admitting the problem, dialing down stress, quieting bedtime, mocking the dream a bit, and moving gently – it’s like building a little peace fortress one brick at a time. Way better than just lying there taking psychic bullets every night.
