How do you deal with existential dread?

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We can't really know what we experience or if we experience, is it permanent nothing or do we transition? So it is the ultimate combination of change with uncertainty

I'm not afraid of being dead nor of dying really (although I've seen it and it's ugly). I'm afraid of having wasted a whole life.

I'm like Michael Caine in Interstellar basically, when he says he's not afraid of death, but he's afraid of time.

Time is Life topic
The keyword there is TIME.
The dead do not check the clock. Time is precious, the older a person gets, as least from my viewpoint. I noticed as I was reading the posts there is no input from those who frequent the Dino Aspie Cafe, ex or otherwise. So I thought, as an older person who does not frequent that space, I would comment here.
I understand humans fear the unknown, yet take comfort in knowing now that when you are deceased you will not know. It is others who will notice your absence, and who will remember. Leave something you value behind before you depart (whenever that is, and at this point is uncertain). In this way, part of you will live on. At this point in history, and until our essences can be stored on the Internet, this is the way in which we can best be remembered.
I hope this post helps somewhat.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
M.K Gandhi
A cadet in a Heinlein novel was once dispatched to headquarters with "an important coded message." When he got there, he had a chance to ask what the great news had been. His boss was a bit puzzled, and then replied - "Oh - your credentials. Without them, you wouldn't have woken up."
I'm 66, and won a world championship with a very innovative first prototype. Even that didn't get me more than a footnote in history, and everybody in the field still does it the hard way. However, a few times, just the right word at the right time seems to have changed a life for the better. I've also had decades when my very best understanding of the situation had not suggested any action.
Feeling some vague unease, Robert Persig went into "Lateral Drift" - semi-random travel and studies - until he stumbled across his connections. He still had to send his best book to 119 publishers before one took a chance and got a bestseller. As long as I'm putting my truth out there as much as my neighbors do, I'm content to leave the rest to fate. I can't figure out what to say, and Facebook success both in one lifetime.