Are you afraid of the dark?

Two nights ago I had my third claustrophobic "episode" or what may be better termed as a mid-night terror attack. The first time I woke up in the middle of the night feeling short of breath and paralyzed with fear, was in this tent at Gambier Lake:

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was being suffocated by darkness. My first instinct was to rip open the tent, but I was afraid that if I moved I would actually start to panic. So instead I lay perfectly still on my back, focused on my breathing and waited for my heartbeat to return to normal. It finally did, but then the rodent came...however, that's an entirely different story.

The second time was in a hotel room in Whistler. Again, my first instinct was to run out of the hotel itself, but instead I concentrated on my breathing and slowly the feeling subsided...luckily, with no rat involved.

A couple of nights ago it happened again - the shortness of breath, the feeling of dread, the frantic need to be in an open space - even writing about it makes me a little nervous. I'm hoping that this isn't the beginning of a phobia of the dark and enclosed spaces...but just to be sure, I think I'll pick up a night light on the way home from work today.