suzanne L:
...after the sensation there is a feeling of great calm.
Essentially I am hoping that some system will have mapped out this experience and I can then understand what the purpose of this is or where to go from here. I am also open to the possibility that I am deluding myself, but since my interaction with all major aspects of life has improved since this experience, my intuition tells me that there is some connection or importance.
It depends on what you want to achieve with your practice. Since you use the term "dark night," I am assuming in this comment that you want to advance along the progress of insight map. If that's not the case, please let me know, and do not follow the advice below.
If you can achieve a state of great calm with some reliability, you may find it is a very useful place from which to start some form of insight practice. It would be worth trying next time you reach that state. If you aren't already familiar with an insight practice, you could try noting the suffering, impermanence and nonself in phenomena as they arise in experience.
Don't push it. At least initially, keep the insight sessions short and try to end them before any overwhelming emotional disturbance. But this state of calm you describe may let you go further before that happens.