I've had a recurring dream, nightmare, night terror, whichever you wish to label it, since I was very young. I never knew it's meaning or why it manifests to me, but everytime it happens I end up with sleep paralysis for about an hour or so. I haven't figured out any pattern as to why it may exist and appears to occur at random.

I'm usually walking in a field or vacant lot set in the nighttime with a
cloudless sky and no moon. I can see twisted trees in the distance and
there's a slight comfortable summer breeze blowing. While I'm walking
comfortably, the hair on my neck stiffens and a dark image appears
solidly, meaning that it just appears out of nowhere. I can tell that
she's female appoximately 5'10" tall, with a slender build, and clothed in a
black, lace burial gown with a hood over her head. She has no feet as she hovers directly before me. Her face is partially skull while the right side
has the features of a young woman's face. Her eyes are cold and dark, as black a nothing can be. Just before I pass out in my dream I notice her hands are an ashen gray color but I can't remember if she's holding anything or making a gesture. As I awake from my dream, I'm fighting for breath and breaking through the dirt to get to the surface of the field in which I was walking. As I surface, I awake from the dream and find myself in a paralysed state for about an hour.

Any thoughts or speculations would be appreciated.