aa777888 - You are making a classic mistake in assuming that simulated IMC, even at night, is even half as disorientating as real IMC.
The first time in 'actual' IMC is what makes people realise how frigging dangerous it is if you are not trained or equipped to fly IMC for real.
All the time in the world under the hood will not prepare you adequately to use an IR in anger - you need to fly actual.
Perhaps this is one of the problems the helicopter world suffers from, too many are trained on non-IFR aircraft but do sim IF under the hood or in a simulator and assume therefore that IMC for real is much easier than it is. perhaps this is why so many are suckered into pushing the limits - because they think, erroneously, that they can handle the environment despite never experiencing it properly.