How to ignore spontaneous OBE and just go to sleep like normal?

[CalmBeach]

I've had trouble getting to sleep and thought I'd try some meditation to help relax into sleep.

I didn't know much about it, I had tried the generic "mindfullness" stuff that is currently trending in companies and had some trouble with intrusive thoughts, so I gave up. But I did find the "put-it-in-a-box" method useful in day-to-day life for things I didn't want to think about. Lately I had begun to wonder about the nature of free will and looked up a little bit about philosophy, remote viewing and different kinds of meditation on YouTube out of curiosity.

Then when I was having trouble sleeping and I'd been trying all sorts of things to get to sleep, I asked my husband what to try this time and he said "I dunno, meditate?". So I ended up trying Vipanassana/insight meditation to get to sleep, thinking it was just a relaxation technique similar to mindfullness and the "insights" might give me something better to focus on instead of random thoughts. I was nice and relaxed but still kind of too "aware" for sleep and then unexpectedly got sucked up this vortex thing into a very peaceful void. Then I went "whoa!" and opened my eyes and it was gone. I mean it was a nice place to end up, but totally unexpected! The vortex thing was sudden and freaky! In searching for answers, I've stumbled on the Astral Dynamics book and just finished reading it.

So from reading it, I think the problem is now I've got a bit of a psychological flinch with regards to falling asleep. I recall that vaguely spinning, starting to get "sucked up" feeling and flinch and roll over because I'm scared of the vortex ride. Eventually I get to sleep, but sometimes it's taking me a long time and then I haven't gotten enough rest by the morning. Reading and getting some knowledge on the topic has helped, but also reminded me of "the dweller" from my childhood dreams so still feeling a bit scared/put-off as well because honestly I still don't know much about this stuff and just want to go to sleep.

I tried leaving the light on like the book suggests and it helps a bit. It suggests ceasing practice with energy work, but I don't normally practice energy work or meditation. Haven't noticed much difference with shower and a full stomach. Lying on different sides is a bit awkward because it cramps up my shoulders sometimes. I'm not sure what to do, I guess I could stop even reading about it and learning on YouTube as well and hope to forget? Another thing I was wondering if it was a sign I should lean into it and overcome the fear as it seems a bunch of stuff lined up for it to happen in the first place? Or should I be working on better control of my thoughts?

I'd be really grateful for any advice or suggestions how to get to sleep, thank you!

[CalmBeach]

Update: Sleeping on the couch has been much easier than sleeping in bed, but still a bit hard to get to sleep.

After doing some more research I have a theory;
Maybe the normal way that I would go to sleep is that I would get those "hypnogagic" kind of mini-dreams that spring from the subconscious and I would sink into those to go to sleep.
Now that I've used this "put-it-in-a-box" method to retrain my subconscious to stop bringing up images that I don't like it seems to have kind of given up bothering me.
So I'm thinking maybe I can re-train my subconscious to bring up nice dreams and I'll be able to go to sleep easily. So I'm going to try some guided positive visualisation relaxation videos from YouTube and see if it trains my subconscious to come back for sleeping.

The getting "sucked up" into a void might have been from concentrating on just nothing. It seems like subconcious images are the ones where you imagine things, like even when you're awake and imagine an apple it appears in that place. And the imaginary apple if you try to focus on one closely, it isn't quite right, the colours lack detail, it's not quite like a real apple if you go look at a real one. That's why it's so hard to draw things from memory and one needs reference images. Whereas the vortex I saw seemed so real because it wasn't in the same place in the mind, it was like focusing attention on something different rather than normal dreams/imagination.

I've been reading about "phasing" and wonder if that's what accidentally happened, links if anyone's interested
https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=6877
https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=140041

[CFTraveler]

When I have trouble sleeping, of all the things I've tried, counting backwards from 200 (visualizing each number as I count) works the best, after blanking my mind.

[CalmBeach]

> When I have trouble sleeping, of all the things I've tried, counting backwards from 200 (visualizing each number as I count) works the best, after blanking my mind.

Thanks, I'll remember this one for next time. The visualisation tracks from YouTube were a bit annoying, I turned it off. I tried visualising going to sleep on the beach, with warm, soft sand, so I can go to sleep in my sleep, it sort of worked a little. The best one was I started a garden project and was thinking about how to place pavers, something about the repetition and a pattern and a problem to solve.

Well I guess there are two problems; #1 was getting to sleep in the first place, #2 was just as I was actually drifting off I'd get scared of the "falling" asleep feeling which I had become overly aware of and it was jerking me awake.
The good news is the memory is fading with time! I'm not jerking awake from worrying about an OBE as I go to sleep anymore! I could almost rationalise it away as some strange dream and forget the whole thing, but I'm not sure it was. Now it's just problem #1 getting to sleep in the first place, which is fine, I'm going to try more exercise and less time on the phone.

I'll put a list of things I tried here for anyone else:
- sleep in a different place, on the couch - #1 best thing
- leave the light on - #2 best, strangely useful when you'd think an eye mask would block out the light anyway
- time passing and memory fades
- stay up late or until usual time - I was so tired I was trying to go to bed early to catch up sleep. Staying up later so you pass straight out worked better even though I had less sleep overall.
- more exercise and get physically tired
- learning about what the vortex could have been and that it's not going to suck me into a nightmare world randomly during the day
- tell it to go away - I think having the intention of not going in one of those vortexes again might have helped, like you're only going to witness it if you allow it to
- try visualising something - variable luck with this because the effort of visualising stuff would break down just before the "falling" feeling or maybe I'm just not that good at it
- don't pay attention to any strange lights/dots/patterns you see with your eyes closed. Visualising/dreams appears in a different place in your mind and that's what you want for going to sleep - I recently learned that I have something called "visual snow", but I only really notice it in the dark or if I'm looking for it.
- do something fun and positive just before bed
- ashwagandha supplement - not sure how to tell if it's working
- fall asleep listening to my husband's chest

Reading about this spirituality and supernatural stuff kind of gives me the creeps, especially reading about ghosts and entities, and it brought up these childhood nightmares. I wonder if I became a non-believer mostly from a desire that I want none of it to exist, but then I got curious aaaand then I found out - be careful what you wish for. I thought I'd do something fun just before bed to block it out, so I picked this game "West of Loathing" which was sitting there untouched, thinking it was a comedy western. Turned out it was a comedy western with a necromancer and the dead have risen! Demonic cows are on the loose! But it was really funny and just lightened up my mood about the subject. It was the perfect thing that I needed, but not what I expected.

[Sh@dow]

Ohh, for god sake, CalmBeach dear please if you are not on any prescription anxiety pills already, just take some Valerian with with combination of Lemon Balm, the combination of the two worked wonders for my hypnic-jekrs, seek for them on your local internet pharmacy shops.

[CalmBeach]

Hi, thanks for the advice. Like I said, it's already going away and I'm taking ashwagandha. If I get it coming back I'll check out Valerian, not sure about mixing this stuff, some of it is rather strong! I was taking some magnesium some time ago for sore muscles and noticed that it gave me unusually vivid dreams, now I take much less.

[Sh@dow]

I'm glad to hear is going away, I know for sure if you think less about it, it will disappear faster.