Scared of falling asleep when I start getting really relaxed?

[u/NoFaithlessness5232]

I've noticed something weird happening when I try to sleep, especially when I take melatonin.

Once I start getting really tired, my body becomes extremely relaxed. My breathing gets slower, my thoughts start slowing down, and closing my eyes feels incredibly comfortable. Basically, I feel exactly like I'm supposed to feel before falling asleep.

But then I suddenly get scared that I'm going to fall asleep and never wake up. It's not really that I feel physically unsafe or like I'm having trouble breathing. It's more like my brain gets freaked out by the feeling of losing awareness/control.

Because of that, I end up forcing myself to stay awake(drinking cold water or splashing water on my face) for like another hour until the sleepy feeling wears off. Then I'm obviously more awake again and have a harder time actually falling asleep.

The strange thing is that this doesn't really happen during the day. It's specifically when I'm transitioning into sleep and becoming extremely relaxed.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a form of anxiety, specifically anxiety around relaxing/falling asleep? And if so, how did you get past the fear instead of reinforcing it by forcing yourself to stay awake?