I'm sometimes afraid of sleeping because it's so similar to death?

Question

Of course, you are alive while sleeping, but it's just the same! You are not concious of anything around you. Isn't that kinda scary?

Trying to get some thoughts going here.

Answer 1

sleep huh?? You should sleep no matter how scary it is.  You are not dead you are living and if you don't get enough sleep you will be dead.  

Answer 2

There is something in this statement "sleeping is similar to death". Especially if it is a very deep sleep. Recently I fainted at the doctor office when they took a sample of my blood. It was a really deep sleep. When I woke up I could not understand where I am and what happened. I thought something bad happened like a car accident because I saw a doctor looking at my face and I could not remember why I am at the hospital. When I realized that I have just fainted I got scary because it was so deep and so similar to death and that I could actually never wake up. After that incident I got more confident that there is no any "afterlife". The death is simply an "off" switch.

Answer 3

You are able to register "around you" (what Karl Jaspers termed the "surround") data stream:  e.g., http://www.lucidity.com offers a light-to-lucidity dream training device.

Experiments have confirmed telepathic intention and permeability during dreams, as well as ability to sense when one is dreaming.

Try giving a read to "Watch Your Dreams," Ann Ree Colton,

"The Masters and Their Retreats," Mark Prophet,

and "The Master of Lucid Dreams," Dr. Olga Kharitidi.  Let them help make dreams, and hence the general rest experience called "sleep," a pleasant, interesting, and even positive experience.

What these teach is that man has several levels of actual and potential awareness and being.  By intention and learning, one may develop these.

Thus, various states of awareness during waking, dreaming, lucid dreaming, and out-of-body awareness, intentionality and learning are demonstrated by those who develop such levels of skill.

(Beta and gamma wave mentation are the more frequently experienced states in waking; gamma wave being associated with insight, creativity, and the like.)

Also worthwhile:

"Autobiography of a Yogi," Yogananda,

http://www.easwaran.org

"Meditation for Beginners," Dr. Jack Kornfield,

"The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock,

"The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis,

"Testimony of Light," Helen Greaves,

"In Heaven So on Earth," M. Scott Peck, M.D.,

"Babies Remember Birth," David Chamberlain, Ph.D.,

"Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D.,

http://www.iands.org

http://www.nderf.org

http://www.carolbowman.com

http://www.integralscience.org

http://www.noetic.org

http://www.heartmath.org

http://www.dreamhealer.com

http://www.sheldrake.org

Answer 4

Sleep is so similar to death. you are right. But you should probably start saying - I'm not afraid of death; 'cause it's so similar to sleep.

Answer 5

i always thought the same thing..

i mean i dont understandc why the night flies by when were in a deep sleep,

or like where we go, hahah if that makes sense

Answer 6

My opinion folks so be kind. SLEEP is the body's time to relax, rejuvenate itself and get ready for a repeat performance tomorrow.

Ever wondered why mechanical motors have an ON and OFF switch? If the motor keeps running 24/7 it will wear out sooner than the motor that runs for 8 hours and is OFF for 16, right?

Well, our body is no different. We tax it with stress, exercise and God knows what else for 8 to 18 hours daily, it NEEDS to sleep so it can be ready to carry our brain through another cycle tomorrow.

I bet you also look at a half glass of water as being HALF empty, right? I on the other hand look at the same glass of water as being HALF FULL. It's a matter of perspective.

Answer 7

Well you got good company:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

Answer 8

Everyone is afraid of death.  Some are afraid to be in a closet or in public or many other things, but it is all based in the fear of death.  Christ has overcome death and in Him we can have no fear.

Answer 9

...

no.

to me sleep is never a scary thing, it's a restful relaxed happy experience.

=)