Hi MedO 
Yes, the noises you experienced are very common. They’re a sign that your body is falling asleep, and are only heard when the mind is still awake. The origin of these noises must be found in the physiological changes the body is going through when it makes the transition from waking to sleeping, like a decreasing blood pressure, alterations in the brainwave activity, lowered body temperature and heightened awareness of the neural activity (usually these are very small stimuli, but when the physical senses are slowly shut down during the onset of sleep, these bodily phenomena become magnified until they reach the audible level so they can be picked up by a brain which is still being aware of its state). So… nothing to worry about 
However, you can indeed use these sounds, visuals or vibrations to enter a dream consciously. That’s what we call a WILD - Wake Initiated Lucid Dream (we have a BIG topic about that: https://community.ld4all.com/t/a-wild-variation/12100
Also, if you really want to learn WILD, it’s best to do it after some 6hrs of sleep: wake up very briefly, concentrate, and let yourself drift back to dreamland while trying to stay conscious. You cán also achieve it when you first go to bed in the evening but it’s far more difficult because the gap between the waking and dreaming world is still very wide (after 6hrs of sleep, it’s much smaller, so it’s far easier to practice WILD then).
There’s much much more to tell about WILD, but I suggest you take a look at the topics I mentioned and browse around a little
Good luck 