Tantalizingly Close to a WILD

[Asymptote]

Last night, I was trying the HILD (Hypnosis-Induced Lucid Dream) technique (kudos to its inventor, by the way, as it almost worked for me!) when something very peculiar happened. My hands and arms went "numb," or perhaps just got desensitized, and soon my whole body felt like that, and it seemed that my brain was no longer entirely connected to it. Then, I was tingling or vibrating. I got the sense that I was going through sleep paralysis, but it felt like I couldn't breathe, and I got too freaked out to continue, so I woke myself up. It took me a few more minutes, but I eventually settled back into SP, but I was all nerves after the rather frightening experience of the previous SP, so my heart was pounding, which only made the "choking" sensation worse. I hovered in that numb phase of SP when you can sense that you are on the border of sleep, but once again, I woke myself up out of fear. So, as an inexperienced LD'er, I have two questions: Was this actually sleep paralysis? If so, what do you do to get over the rather frightening feeelings SP causes? P.S.: Anybody who can answer Question 2 will be my personal hero, since, if this was indeed SP, I was on the edge of the most vivid WILD I've ever had.