How My Brain Went Full Sci-Fi
Honestly, I used to laugh at people who took dreams super seriously. Like, aliens? Come on. But lately, my own brain decided to crank out this wild alien invasion nightmare, night after night. Giant ships hovering, weird creatures zapping stuff, me hiding under a sink – felt so real I’d wake up sweating buckets. Figured it was time to actually, you know, try figuring out what the heck my head was playing at.
First thing, I grabbed my old notebook – the kind I usually scribble grocery lists in. Flipped past “eggs” and “dog food,” found a blank page and just started dumping everything from the dream. Didn’t overthink it. Just wrote: crashing sounds, purple sky, three-legged things, my legs feeling stuck in glue, hiding behind couch, heart pounding so loud… Woke up when something sniffed my ear. Gross. Wrote it all down quick before I forgot.
Then I tried the basic online dream dictionary junk. Looked up “alien.” Most said “fear of the unknown” or “feeling different.” Okay, vague. Looked up “invasion.” Got stuff like “loss of control” or “personal space violated.” Again, kinda obvious? Didn’t feel like it clicked. Felt too generic, like those one-size-fits-all t-shirts that never fit right. Frustrating.
Poking My Own Brain
So I stopped looking outside and started poking my own life instead. Sat down with a coffee, stared out the window, and just asked myself: “What feels invaded right now? What feels totally out there in my life?” And boom, a few things hit me like a ton of bricks:
- The Job Hassle: My boss dumped three urgent new projects on me last week. Just piled ’em on. Felt like my workday was getting swamped, conquered even.
- The Neighbors: Seriously. The people next door started tearing down their back porch at 7 AM *. Hammers, saws, yelling. Zero warning. Felt like they invaded my quiet mornings. Couldn’t escape the noise.
- Social Stuff: Got invited to this big group hangout by someone I barely know. Felt pressured to go. My brain kept screaming “strange territory!” but I didn’t wanna seem rude.
- Personal Mess: My basement storage room? Total chaos zone. Boxes overflowing, stuff everywhere. Avoided it for weeks. Felt like hostile territory just waiting to ambush me.
- Big Stuff: Heard my folks talking about some serious health stuff going on with my uncle. Distant, but scary. Felt powerless, like watching something scary unfold from afar.
Putting it all together felt like a lightbulb moment. My brain wasn’t showing me sci-fi movies for fun. It was grabbing images for feelings I hadn’t really dealt with yet. The alien invasion was just the symbol it picked to scream: “HEY! You’re feeling swamped! Invaded! Stressed about the unknown!”
What Actually Helped (A Bit)
Knowing why didn’t magically stop the dreams. But it changed how I reacted. Instead of just waking up freaked out, I could think, “Okay brain, loud and clear. Yeah, I am feeling swamped.” Then, during the day, I tried to tackle those “invasion zones”:
- Talked to my boss about the workload. Said “no” to one project. Felt scary, but necessary.
- Bought decent earplugs. Put ’em in before the neighborly demolition derby started. Small victory.
- Skipped the group hangout. Felt good.
- Spent one hour tackling the basement mess. Just one hour. Huge difference.
- Called my parents just to chat about my uncle, instead of worrying silently.
Didn’t fix everything overnight. Life’s still messy. But focusing on where I felt “invaded” or overwhelmed in real life, and doing tiny things to reclaim some control… that made a difference. The dreams aren’t every single night anymore. Now when they pop up, it feels less like a horror movie and more like… my brain just sending me a slightly dramatic memo.
