I was just thinking of something. I’ve heard heroin described as one of the most amazing experiences in someone’s life (at first at least). Of course, most people don’t want to try it because of all the consequences.
But what about when you are old and just about to die? What reason is there not to prop you full of drugs and give you an amazing experience right before you die?
I’d prefer explosives over drugs for the drama of it. But I’ve always rather wanted to somehow know exactly when I’m going to die just so I could suicide right beforehand. A way of asserting my own defiance of nature; “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
I’d like to die while lying on my back on a boulder deep in Boreal wilderness in late springtime, and have raven turn my aged body into a messy skeleton after the fact.
You might like a Canadian film from the 90s, “Last Night”:
Set in a world that will end precisely at midnight, one of the characters resolves to blow her own brains out a split-second before the end, for precisely the reason you gave.
I’d like to die quietly after a very short decline with friends and family nearby. I’d like to go having told those I love that I love them.
I want to lay down for a nap, fall asleep with the warmth and purr of the cat or cats curled up with me, and just not wake up.
Falling. Hell, I’d spend the last few seconds of my life trying to learn how to fly.
That sounds okay with me. (Plus, I don’t have to worry about my cats getting hungry! :D) Seriously, though, dying in your sleep sounds like the way to go.
I’m comfortable with carbon monoxide poisoning while I’m asleep in bed.
That big, round thing rushing towards you? The thing that looks like it should have a big, round name? Yah, it actually will not be friends with you at all.
Dying in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.
Actually, as far as dying because something random bad has happened to you, hypothermia might not be so bad. Apparently at the end you feel pretty happy and ironically warm. I would imagine under just the right circumstances you could reach that point without going through that “frack, I am soooo fracking cold” stage.
It almost got me once under such nearly ideal conditions. I was never OMG cold. I wasnt all the way to the warm, happy ending part, but I was mostly through the cold part and well into the I can’t move, talk, or think right part.
Made me snort. . . 
I’ve never understood the “I want to sleep through it” mentality. Have you no curiosity about it at all? I can’t imagine wanting to miss out on such a (pardon the phrase) once in a lifetime experience.
That said, I’d like it to be painless. I’d prefer not to be blissed out on drugs either, although I probably wouldn’t mind a nice ride a couple of days prior.*
I’d just like to be talking with loved ones one minute, and watching the lights slowly fade the next. Maybe brain aneurysm? Or a really massive and sudden heart attack?
My adopted Grandmother went that way. She was on a comfy hospital bed, and I was describing the beautiful Autumn foliage I’d seen on the way there, and she just closed her eyes and smiled, and sometime during the story I noticed she had gone.
Like that.
*Truth be told, if I knew I had only a week or so left, I’d be unlikely to waste any of it on fake bliss.
I lived for a while on a farm seven miles outside of town in South Dakota; I went for a walk one bitterly cold dead calm night when there actually wasn’t much snow. I thought I was dressed well enough but I wasn’t. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to simply lie down and sleep; obviously I chose not to. But it wouldn’t be a bad way to go if it were time to go.
Another time, many years ago, I managed to get in trouble swimming in the Gulf of Mexico on an outgoing tide and actually had to be rescued by a much stronger swimmer than myself. I had basically given up and had decided to just nap for a few minutes and then swim back to the boat. That, too, was a peaceful feeling although I imagine it wouldn’t have been too peaceful if I had actually breathed in a little water. By and large, if I couldn’t die peacefully in my sleep, hypothermia seems to be not a bad choice. Not sure how I’ll arrange hypothermia while living in Florida, although it is 42 degrees F at the moment. Bitter for this neighborhood.
Forget about dying in my sleep. Dying is a once in a lifetime event, and damn if I’m sleeping through it. Same thing for heroin. I wouldn’t mind trying it a day or two before I died, but I wouldn’t want to be high when I experience the actual event.
ETA: Wow. TruCelt, I couldn’t agree with you more.
ETA again: I swear on a stack of Bhudda bibles, I didn’t copy off of TruCelt’s paper!
I guess the way I think about it, we all miss out on that experience whether we’re awake or asleep. After all, if you’re awake, you aren’t dead. What comes before death? Probably lots of pain and suffering, which is likely not remarkably different than non-death related pain and suffering, though it will most likely be accompanied by the terror of knowing you’re going to die. I already experienced pain and suffering, I’ll probably experience a lot more before I die, and since I’ll actually have no conscious awareness of being dead, I just really don’t see the point.
What **saje **said, so long as my cats are provided for before I go.
Given that its a known fact that cats steal your breath, sooner or later you will die sleeping with cats if cats are what you sleep with 
I want to force Batman to kill me.
Probably lots of pain and suffering. Probably. What if, at the very last second, you get some kind of colorful flash or something. Some flash of colors so beautiful that all you have time to do is marvel before CURTAINS!
My adviser died in his sleep, and he wasn’t even sick (to his knowledge.) My wife’s grandfather was in the hospital, got up to go to the john, and keeled over. Both good ways. Though I must admit I’d like holding my heart, staggering around, and shouting “it’s the big one. I’m coming Elizabeth!” Except my wife wouldn’t know who I’m referring too.