I'm Scared To Fall Asleep?

[Mr Here and Now]

Hey guys, so a few nights ago, I decided to stay up all night, then I slept at 9 AM, and was woken up at 11 AM. I tried to sleep that night, and was strangely scared to fall asleep. By that time, the body was SUPER tired, I couldn't even walk in a straight line as my brain was out of fuel, anyways, I lay in bed with the tired body, and well, I just COULD not sleep. I tried not thinking, and as soon as I felt like I was going to sleep, I instantly got scared as I didn't want to go into unconsciousness, so I turned my mind on every time, to avoid blacking out. Luckily, at around 10 AM today I somehow fell asleep, and have woken up at 7 PM, so a nice long sleep which was needed as my body started to shake. But now it's half 10 at night, I'm now scared out of my mind to drift off. Any suggestions? I've been trying to meditate but gat makes the problem worse.

[Prabhaker]

Allow the fear. Tremble with it, let it shake your foundations – and enjoy it as a deep experience of stirring. You are already on guard, already escaping, running away. In a very subtle way you have broken yourself away from it. Just watch the feeling of it, the way it is.

[Azrael]

10 hours ago, Davie said:

Any suggestions? I've been trying to meditate but gat makes the problem worse.

I know this problem a bit myself. I am and always was a very long good sleeper. But when I started the meditation journey I encountered phases in which I'd dream very, very visual and intense dreams and it feels like they fill my whole 8 hours of sleep. So in these times I lay in bed at the end of the day, sometimes scared out of my mind to fall asleep because I know what comes.

I have such a phase right now (in which I dream a lot) because I started using HoloSync a week ago and this probably triggers these dreams. However, after having this come up now the 3-4th time in 1.5 years I just do this:

I close my eyes, say to myself (my unconscious) may you dream and process whatever you want to. Rip me into pieces, there is nothing I can do. And then I self-hypnotize myself (I often do that out of fun before I sleep). Basically I go to every part of my body and say: "My eyes are relaxed, my nose is relaxed ..." until my whole body is relaxed. Most of the time, when I'm really tired I'll fall asleep in that process or shortly after.

So, I know it's kind of hard to embrace your fear. But this is one of the solutions here. Also picture this: Every time you wake up you feel pretty good not being in this world for a few hours. Get this feeling in your body while laying in bed trying to fall asleep and relax into it.

Hope that helps