Near death experience in my dream..scared!!

[Ronan23]

Hi,
This will probably come across as completely crazy but I had a really ****ed up experience last night and i'm scared to go asleep again.

I was asleep and then got into this sort of half-awake state. I was dreaming but kind of knew I was dreaming if that makes sense. I've heard of lucid dreaming but I couldn't control this so it wasn't lucid I don't think. Anyway I was close to waking and randomly, the grim reaper appeared in my dream. This was followed by an intense hot feeling where I was trying to wake up but couldn't wake up. It lasted about 20 seconds before I finally opened my eyes. I've had bouts of sleep paralysis before but this felt different. I didn't feel paralysed I just felt I couldn't get out of the dream state and was focusing intensly on my breathing, expecting it to stop any minute. Has this happened anyone before?

As an anxiety sufferer it freaked me out badly. Could this have been a near death experience or was it likely just a really strange dream?

[AsianFidgetME]

That is sleep paralysis....I experienced it myself! And it is very very scary. Someone that I didn't even see the face is grabbing me. That repeatedly happens in a week. Everytime I sleep, I have to worry about it. The reason why I don't want to go to sleep. But that was last year, when my anxiety and depression was really high. I couldn't move, couldn't scream for help. But when I tried to calm myself then I can move myself and be awake. I was like gasping for air and my palpitation was really fast.
I manage to deal with it because of overcoming my fears. I do not guarantee that I don't have a fear but atleast I can control it. They say that its your fear that turns into a dream. Whenever you had one just think and say to yourself that it was only a dream and it will just banish. It usually happens when I am super exhausted.