I have a really strange fear of the sea at night!!! This is strange to me as I have neither a fear of the water or the dark. I sometimes have this strange "flashback" for want of a better term, that I get while awake of being up to my neck in water and surrounded by blackness. I can see light being reflected off the water (I have always assumed this is light from the moon) and I know I am treading water. Then this is the really scary part...I sense something nudge the bottom of my foot. I say this scares me because on more than one occasion my whole body has reacted to this "memory/flashback/daydream...whatever", luckily I have always been at home when this happened. It sounds silly I know but it feels so real and I have literally been terrified by this thing on several occasions.
I had it while I was lying in bed last night and I could feel my skin go cold through fear! What's happening to me???

Sounds bizarre.

It could be some mad form of panic attack, perhaps your brain just interprets it that way. I had one once on a night shift where I could have sworn I was being held down by something and shouted for my friend to come and help me. She was only a few feet away but never moved. When I took it up with her later she, and a few others, said I'd never made a sound.

Of course there's always the route of past-life experiences... depends how much you subscribe to that.

Oh I'm a big believer of the past life thing, I have been told it is possibly something to do with a past memory and I guess it would explain it (kind of). The thing is I can swim fine so it's nothing to do with a fear of drowning...and I would never swim in the sea at night anyway, I'm not stupid enough to do that...but it feels like it's real!