I don't think you hate sleep. But you already have something funky going on with your deep sleep. I've met a lot of people with different sleep disorders, some don't even have a name. Take my friend for example that don't dream. People think that is BS, and that she just doesn't remember. Comes out she has less than 10 % REM sleep.... Kinda weird.

I do think some of your issues is a circadian rhythm thing. I couldn't usually go to bed even dead tired too early, or I would wake up at night, the same time every night, with a sense of dread. I woke up with it. Straight from deep sleep. Going to bed after that hour that never happened. Now I was lucky I didn't have school or work so I could do that.

So yea it could be that your brain is sort of influenced of time of night and urges you to wake up.

In a certain time of our civilization (forgot the era, not good at history), we had dual sleep. It was normal to think of sleep as two things, first and second sleep. And people knew there was a big gap there inbetween where they had to sort of be awake. Since many people were up at the same time they could talk and socialize. These days we don't have the "time" to go to bed at 8:30, be up two-three hours and then sleep until the morning. We demand our sleep is efficient and uninterrupted.

Also I think some of the so called sleep disorders once had a purpose. I mean, in the old times they could put night owls like me on guard and we wouldn't fall asleep during the night. Maybe it also once had a purpose for people to wake up alarmed. I don't know.

I think the fear itself can be many different things. It can come from changing from deep sleep to being awake (night terror), but like you say, even if you don't wake up scared the fear can come afterwards. I mean it can be something one expects, if you had a prior experience of waking up fearful, like a learned fear. But also nighttime IS special and always have been. I don't know if it is a myth, but during "hour of the wolf" (night before dawn), most people die. Also it is said to be the harshest hour for working with work related accidents following. And there are tons of myths about late night, often related to strong fears and sometimes to the supernatural. So it's been sort of going through the ages, that night time is something of fear. Like ghosting hour at 12 is also a common thing in popular culture. So it's kind of there in our "genes".

Some nights even had more significance than others. Like for where I come from. This night we just had (called Lussi night)was thought to be the longest night, where the bad spirits could get you. Also in our tradition, arriving to church in the wolfing hour at Xmas day and you would find the ghosts having mass.

I have often freaked myself out at night. I guess especially after waking up and it is dark, you are very sensitive. I have had the feeling someone was there (spirit) like for real, or sometimes I had just freaked myself out being afraid of random objects in my room. I'm not really superstitious but sometimes I do cleansing processes just to tell my mind I'm doing something about it. It's not particularly odd really that I can spook myself so bad at night, even when nothing triggered it. It is night time, and I guess our brains tell us to be extra aware of dangers.

Yea, rambling all over here. What I meant to say is that it is possibly not very strange that you hold this fear looking back at human history. But also I know from my own experience that it is scary and it does need to be addressed somehow. I hope you can find the perfect way to handle your fear, it is probably not the same I handle mine, but after you find something that might work you might feel more in control. I think knowing you can do something about it is very important.