Jake Carter revealed he’s had torturous nightmares since taking part in RTE’s Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week: The Professionals.
The singer and former Dancing with the Stars champion is part of a group of famous faces who undertook the gruelling week of physical and mental challenges used as a test for those entering military service.
But describing the experience as ‘worse than you could ever imagine’ the brother of country crooner Nathan Carter said he had nightmares for weeks after.
“I’d be in bed at night talking in my sleep and sleepwalking too,” he told RTE Guide.
“In the morning, my girlfriend Karen [Byrne] would tell me how I had been waking up in the night, thinking that I was shooting people in the bedroom - crazy stuff.
“It was as if I was thinking I was an army ranger.
“I was doing those things in my sleep for about a month after the show finished.
“I even got a bit of a jolt watching the trailer the other day.
“It brought me right back to all that happened in May.”
At 22, Jake is the youngest of the participants in the show.
And whilst he admits he went on the show to prove a point to those who said he’d never be able to do it, he said he could have never anticipated how hard it was going to be.
The Liverpool native said: “I had watched the Irish show as well as the UK SAS version.
“I thought ‘I could do that and be alright’.
“But when sh*t hits the fan, it’s so much worse than you can imagine.
“It was like being hit by a brick wall.”
“It was then I realised that this really wasn’t a TV show any more and you just go into survival mode.”
He went on: “I just want to prove people wrong.”
“When I mentioned it to my brother Nathan and others, they were like ‘There’s no way in hell you’ll survive that - you’ll just last ten minutes and then quit.
“So I wanted to prove people wrong and show them a different side to me.
“I’m five foot seven and was looking up at all these sporty athletes and thinking, ‘Jesus, how am I going to survive? I’m just a singer, not a sportsperson.’
“The DSs also probably thought that this guy is going to go in a few hours. But I always love a challenge and throwing myself at anything, like Dancing with the Stars or in this case, trying to be an Irish Ranger!”
Despite being proud of his efforts, the singer said he won’t be rushing back to do it in a hurry.
"It was an amazing experience but I don’t think I'd ever do it again," he said.
“Karen was overwhelmed, as was Nathan, because so many expected me to not even make it to the start line.”
And with nightmares still haunting him about the gruelling week, he said he’s put his brother off ever following in his footsteps.
He said: “I said to Nathan that he should do the next season and he said: ‘After what you’ve just described, I would never go near that show!”
