The state of being about to fall asleep is an altered state of consciousness, and not too different from the states that are entered while meditating. The standard way to address it would be to try and bring that state of anxiety, fear and terror towards a calm equanimity: a sense and intuition that no matter what happens, everything will be okay. This might even help you realize that you actually have some unresolved baggage or stress to work through that's blocking this path and leaving you with that anxiety. But that's quite common and not very hard to address in turn.
I agree, and my experience has been that I can turn it all off. I didn't put it here as a "help me god" but it's been on the back of my mind for years, and I was hoping someone here might have academic knowledgeable with this exact experience.
