I’ve a rather interesting problem here folks. I’m sort of scared to go to sleep. I’m not afraid of what happens during sleep, of sleep itselfs, dreams, etc. I just DREAD the moment between closing my eyes, and actually falling asleep. I’ve had problems with this since I can remember. It goes in phases though. I haven’t had a problem since, oh, I’d say the 5th grade. It got so bad some nights, I’d lay there for an hour or two.
So now, I just use my Insight CD (www.immrama.org) to fall asleep. It’s easier that way because I’m not aware that I’m going to go sleep. I know it’ll happen, but it doesn’t bother me because it’s sudden. I don’t know it’s hard to explain.
What should I do?
Calm down dude! What makes you so afaid? You should use autosuggestion to calm yourself down. Good idea with the meditation.
Can you explain or put a feeling to what it is you dread, does closing your eyes normally make you afraid?
No, like I said, it’s rather hard to explain. I’m not scared. It’s like, for when you guys where in school, when you’re getting called down to the Vice Principals office. It’s not fear, but it also isn’t as severe as dread. Just not wanting it to happen. I think, maybe, it’s because I don’t know when it’s going to happen (It being falling asleep.).
I sort of see what you mean, but not really.
Try to focus on exactly why you feel that way. When you find it you should be able to think about it logically.
A lot of fears and dread can be explained from even the littlest things when you were younger, perhaps you had a violent spasm you felt as you were going to sleep one night.
That’s true… It comes and goes though… I can’t think of what triggers it though. It will pass sooner or later, and besides, the upside (Since there’s always an upside.) is that I’ve finally gotten into a rythm with my meditation. I got the CD last January… -_-’
Thanks! I actually feel better now… Lol, life’s little problems have such funny ways of sorting themselves out. 
It almost seems to me that it is the anticipation of falling asleep that gets you nervous or dreading. Have you tried lying in bed and thinking about a specific thing or just random thoughts? I ask this because I found that if I was thinking about going to sleep in any way then it wasn’t possible for me to fall asleep.
Sleep is not death.
For what you say, its probably some kind of anxiety problem… Ever been to a doctor about it? Anxiety issues when untreated can get to affect your life in many ways…
I must agree with Lucidity_Master: probably the worst thing you can think of while going asleep is the sole fact of going asleep. That’s what people with insomnia mostly do and it doesn’t help them for sure. I see similar case here: you should then draw your thoughts away from the fear.
That happens to me too sometimes…I’m not sure if it’s the same, really, but I feel too scared to move and I feel like my head is getting bigger and then smaller. I’ve had this feeling from time to time ever since I was about 5, and I don’t know why, but I’ve always called it “the thumb feeling.” I never used to be scared of it though, until about a year or two ago. Now when I get the thumb feeling, I also see weird images that I wouldn’t necessarily be scared of if I saw any other time, but with the feeling, I’m terrified. One image that comes up a lot is a red alien head that glows and grows and shrinks.
Well, heres the deal, I used to be the same way, so I know what you mean, I used to think to myself “you know, I can never remember the moment I fall asleep, in the morning, I just remember laying down, and then waking up (with my dreams in the middle of course)” so then I decided to try and pay closer attention to falling alseep (note, this was when I was like five, long before I learned about lucid dreams) so I tried that then, the next thing I know, I’m awake in my bed, so I start to kind of dread being consous the moment I fall asleep for some reason (like you do). Then I just magically got over it, and let me tell you, I have been consous the moment I fell asleep once, you know what happened? I had a WILD, that was the best lucid dream of my entire life, now I strive do it again, it’s good, not bad, don’t be afraid of it.
I used to be like that. I know what you mean. It’s hard to explain the feeling. It’s sort of like a dread of the unknown. Well, at least it was for me. I had no idea what was going on in my room while I had my eyes closed, so I was constantly opening my eyes back up to make sure everything was the way it should have been. When I started listening to music, it stopped that and helped me fall asleep faster.