I do not have the same reactions to being placed in the MRI machine. The first time I heard the noises, I found some of them bizarre and I had to keep myself from laughing at the banging, burring, kabong-ing. And I also felt so relaxed that I had to try not to sleep and twitch.

All that said, you can play the counting game. The tech will be glad to tell you how long a certain image will take - two minutes, etc. By constantly being in touch with you, it may take off some of your anxiety edge.

The first time, when the tech would say that an image would take two minutes, I would begin to count off the seconds to see how well I could space it, as a game to see if I could correctly be "on time." It was also a way to know when an image would be complete.

The counting also ending up being a relaxation technique. That may have been why I fell asleep.

The most recent time I had an MRI, I was given earphones for music. Loved that. Music and the banging sounds. Quite the combination.