February 26 saw the worldwide release of R. J. Cutler’s documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” about the popular young singer, who became a five-time Grammy winner last year. Filmed mostly in Billy’s home, where she lives with her parents and brother, the documentary shows how the artist’s life-changing debut album was recorded.
In one of the first shots shown in the trailer, the camera follows Billy into her parents’ room where she confesses that she still sleeps in their bed: “This is my parents’ bed, and I sleep in here because I’m scared of monsters in my room.” The singer reveals that she suffers from severe sleep paralysis and nightmares that have followed her since childhood.
Two years ago, on the eve of the release of her first studio album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” that made her famous, Billy first spoke about her nightly fears. In an interview with Apple Music, she shared that the album is completely saturated with her nightmares: “The album is basically what happens when you fall asleep. For me, in every song in the album there’s sleep paralysis. There’s night terrors, nightmares, lucid dreams. All things that don’t have an explanation. “
According to the singer, many of her songs grew out of these experiences, because sleep problems continue to affect her life. “Sometimes I’ll have dreams where the thing that was in my dream will happen the next day.” Billy also admits that she has lucid dreams almost constantly and controls them. But the worst thing for her are the repeated attacks of sleep paralysis and nightmares – the monsters in her room. “It was changing me as a person,” the singer admits. After all, she cannot wake up from the nightmares.
In songs such as “Bury a Friend” Billy describes in detail how she feels during sleep paralysis attacks. In the video, a girl is talking to a monster chasing her. “The whole video is supposed to be a recurring nightmare so it repeats three times in the video. I am this monster under the bed. My own monster under my own bed. I am my own worst enemy.” The singer admits to having had the same reoccurring nightmare for two months.
Besides the fact that the documentary gives us a better understanding of Billy and the nature of her songs, it is also a first-time look at how the singer has been coping with a complex disease – Tourette’s syndrome. This is a neurological disorder that manifests itself in bouts of uncontrollable tics that are aggravated by stress. It is possible that this neurological problem also exacerbates the singer’s fears. However, according to her own words, nightmares for her have become both torment and inspiration, influencing her music.
What other celebrities are practicing or getting scared of phase states? Share in the comments if you know.
You can watch the trailer for the movie via the link.
