Shadowing Practice: Teddy Swims "Bad Dreams" Lyrics & Meaning | Genius Verified - Learn English Speaking with Video
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60 sentences
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1
I hate going to sleep.
2
I'm a firm believer that if I didn't have to sleep, how much stuff I could get done.
3
My mind is just, I don't know, it's always on.
4
And so I just have these awful nightmares all the time.
5
We're at this writing camp in Palm Springs, and it was Julian Bonnetto, of course, John Ryan, Matt Zara, Solly, Rocky Block, and Mickey Echo.
6
Me and Julian, every morning when we do our camps, me and him just take a walk and talk about the day,
7
talk about what we're gonna do, what's on your mind, and have quite a little therapy session about what's going on with me right now.
8
The night before, it was getting really late, and I was just not trying to go to sleep.
9
I cried to them about it, like, I'm scared to go to sleep.
10
I don't want to go to sleep.
11
And he was like, oh, we should write Bad Dreams.
12
It's really cool.
13
And so we did.
14
The first one is kind of, I know sleep is going to be hell for me.
15
You see the sun is going down, time's running out, and I'm by myself in the bed, and here I am.
16
And everybody's going to bed, and I'm begging my friends to stay awake and hang out with me longer.
17
And it's bedtime, and that sucks, because I don't like bedtime.
18
The anxiety of what it feels like to go to sleep, get ready for bed for me at all.
19
It's tough.
20
So I think it says that in a visual way.
21
You know the pre reveals that it's a love song, but I guess like an urgency to the person
22
that you are maybe co -dependent on to sleep when I first got with Rache, my baby mama.
23
It was wonderful.
24
She quite really understood, and it's been such a wonderful person in my life to help me with that,
25
somebody that's there with me when I wake up and will calm me down, and it's okay, and hold me, and be there for me.
26
It's always easier sleeping with her.
27
I don't know, there's just a freedom of anxiety already
28
when I'm stepping to the bed with her because I know that I have somebody there.
29
I'm not alone, you know, I guess.
30
And so I think that says this is kind of like a thanks to her, I guess, in a way.
31
You set me free from all of these, all of these.
32
I've always had bad chronic nightmares since I was a kid.
33
And one of the ones I remember vividly is my mom would get out of the car
34
and walk into her friend's house or the store real quick and leave the car on.
35
And I would sit in the car and the car would just kind of start going or backing up and leaving, driving by itself.
36
And I'd be trying to control it or stepping on and looking out the windows and banging.
37
And that's one I really, really remember.
38
Please come around, help me settle down, hellish habits can cloud my head.
39
What you waiting for?
40
Something physical.
41
I can't do this by myself.
42
What are you waiting for?
43
Something physical is kind of like, are you waiting for this stuff to actually happen in real life?
44
The stuff that actually happens in my dreams.
45
There's always this fear of when you're sleeping, feeling like it's actually for really happening and waking up
46
and feeling like I hope I wasn't like seeing the future in my dream, like some foreshadowing or something.
47
Rocky Block is responsible for that whole second verse.
48
We had written the whole verse through chorus of the song, and then he just got it.
49
He was like, I got the second verse right here.
50
It's just like, perfect, let's do it.
51
I call him Mr. Chat, GBT, man.
52
And so every time I sing that, you know, I just had him out riding on the road with us too.
53
And I don't know, it just always makes me feel close to him when I sing that verse, I guess, you know.
54
We knew it would be a hit, but without it being like a screamer, you know what I mean?
55
Because so many of my songs are like just me yelling for three and a half minutes, you know what I mean?
56
It's like the tip of my voice.
57
And the more I tour, the more I'm like, why did I write these songs to be like at the top of my voice
58
and I'm singing for two hours a night?
59
It's just not sustainable, you know what I mean?
60
So we were trying to also write something that just kind of had a groove, but like didn't require me to yell all the time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Teddy Swims "Bad Dreams" Lyrics & Meaning”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sleep, verse, bed, guess, song. This video has 60 sentences and 815 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:34. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| verse noun | /ˈvɝs/ | A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| nightmare noun | /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ | A very unpleasant or frightening dream. |
| yell verb | /jɛl/ | To shout; holler; make a loud sound with the voice, especially to express intense emotions such as anger or excitement. |
| bedtime noun | /ˈbɛdtaɪm/ | The time or hour at which one retires to bed in order to sleep. |
| awful adjective | /ˈɔːfʊl/ | Very bad. |
| cloud noun | /ˈklaʊ̯d/ | A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. |
| reveal verb | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden. |
| suck verb | /sʌk/ | To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast). |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| bang noun | /ˈbæŋ/ | A sudden percussive noise. |
| dependent adjective | /dɪˈpɛndənt/ | Relying upon; depending upon. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| mama noun | /ˈmɑmə/ | Synonym of mother (“a female parent”). |
| chronic adjective | /ˈkɹɑ.nɪk/ | Of a problem, that continues over an extended period of time. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| back up verb | To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so. | |
| come around verb | /kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/ | To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. | |
| look out verb | To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger. | |
| run out verb | To use up or consume all | |
| settle down verb | To make or become quiet and calm after a period of disturbance or restlessness. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I don't want to go to sleep.
- I'm not alone, you know, I guess.
- What you waiting for?
- What are you waiting for?
- It's just not sustainable, you know what I mean?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 23 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: foreshadow /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/, hellish /ˈhɛlɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like verse, anxiety, nightmare.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.