Strange phenomena occurring when i drift off to sleep

When I was a very young child, my earliest recollection of this occurring was when I was approximately three or four, I would go to bed like every other child. Following the same routine as set by cultural norms, the brushing of the teeth, the tucking into the bed by obliging mother, the bedtime story (on occasion anyway). But as my mother would leave the room and close the door, and I would lie in the bed waiting to drift off to sleep, before my eyes would appear moving, kaleidoscopic colours and patterns. There would be several of them before my eyes in the dark, each of them different, and sometimes they would be twirling and other times they would be drifting across my vision. It was hard to focus on them, like when you look at a bright light and look away again and see the coloured patterns burnt into your retina, but you can't focus on them. I've never mentioned it to anyone before. As I grew older, they became less and less frequent, from every night to only every so often, to the point where they occur only very briefly now and only every few nights. I look forward to it, but sadly it's not something I can induce.

Also, while I'm typing, I would often experience this unnerving sensation of the bed moving. Not a simple subtly shaking as I have read in some things here, but a very pronounced swinging from left to right. It would feel as though the bed is suspended up high, you know how you can feel when you're several meters from the ground, like on one of those really cool flying foxes? Anyway, It would feel like the bed was really high up, and was swinging left to right with some force, getting slightly lower each time. At first it freaked me out, and I would sit upright and it would stop. I'd call for my mother and tell her about it. She just told me that it was a dream and to go back to sleep, which always confused me because I hadn't had any bloody sleep yet because there are lights dancing in my face and the bed is having it's own party. I'm certain that this is something psychological, but I just cannot fathom why it happened as a child and not so much now (I just turned 22). It still does occur, but considerably less frequently than it used to.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,

Yhosh