Odd experience maybe the beginning of a projection?

[samsara]

After being awake all night I went to bed around 9.30pm the next day and went to sleep as normal except I became aware of being in total darkness and had a feeling almost like my whole being was being sucked away somewhere and I had an automatic fear response to fight it which brought me back to consciousness but with no mental strength to maintain it. I must have fell back to sleep as I can't remember any other problems from that point on.

[Xanth]

Could you further explain/describe the "total darkness"?
Would you describe it as a 3D darkness?

[samsara]

I would say it was complete nothingness as though the only thing there was my awareness and the suction feeling. Like being nowhere at all.

[ancient_one]

I would say it was complete nothingness as though the only thing there was my awareness and the suction feeling. Like being nowhere at all.

samara, I know the feeling.  I have had what you describe happen at odd times most of my life- like the essence of my being is being drained out of me.  I am not sure how it is related- but it must be. Even for me, it still scares me and I got over fear of SP and OOBE long ago. 

[samsara]

I'm sort of wondering now if it was a leaving of the body or being pulled back in. I don't recall anything before I became aware in the dark area (I don't know what else to call it other than being in a spacious nothingness) Hopefully now I have experienced the sensation it should become familiar enough so I can let it run without fighting it.

[ghostinthemachine]

This reminds me of my early out of body experiences (13 yrs ago already.. man I'm old, lol).
I'd wake up to the feeling of being sucked out of my body and all I could see was darkness, like I was blind. I was still very scared at that time and always tried to get back into my body asap.

[samsara]

Yeah, Ghost. That does sound like the same thing. It is like being fully conscious in complete darkness with the suction feeling. My instinct was to fight it out of fear I was dying or something but I remember reading in a Munroe book about a stage in AP which seems to fit this pattern. I have experienced this conscious void before but without any suction and I was fully calm in that instance. I gave up trying to hold consciousness while falling asleep ( Mainly because it seemed to be quite tiring)and haven't been trying to project for a long time but maybe my subconscious still has the desire to achieve it.