Well i am not sure if this actually a way I use to wake up from a dream. But a long time ago my dad taught me a way to wake up without having to use my alarm clock. Can't remember how it came up in conversation either.

But basically before you go to bed you are most susceptible to hypnotizing, and when you are to that point when you are just about to go to sleep, repeat the time you wish to wake up out loud ten times. And for the first couple nights it didn't work. but he kept saying to keep trying. So I did.

Low and behold the next week it started working, of course it isn't exact. without about ten minutes before is what I usually have.

But it really does work. I haven't used my alarm clock in over three years. Now of course there are reasons why this won't work for some people. If you stay up late at night your body will to exhausted to be able to wake up using this.

But just a little thought that came to mind when I read this.

I never got the hang of lucid dreaming ( dreaming consciously/being in control of your dreams). At some point I may end up in the middle of dream that just becomes lucid. Like I'll be running around as a character in a setting and then WHAM I realize "hey I can choose to do this, this or this" or " hey I think that person should be a skunk and BAM now they are a skunk". I just do na have the knack to put myself into a state to start a lucid dream.

As for moving in your sleep, like I said I've done it and I am happy that I can do so. Just recently ( like 3 months ago ) I had some bizzarre dream and I needed to get up so I focused on tapping my foot on my husbands leg (it was resting on his leg). I had to go through this rigamarole three times before I could stay awake and of course it woke him up too.
"Quit kicking me baby!"

I dont have a technique but I would like to learn one. The farest I have gotten is to be conscious that I am dreaming, and its awful because my mind is already awake and aware but my body wont respond to waking up, I cant even move a muscle, sometimes you feel like you cant even breathe. It usually takes me about 2 - 5 minutes to wake up from this state. I would like to keep on trying to lucid dream, I have heard really cool things about it, but I am not really good at it.

Well, I know the feeling when you realised you're in a dream and decides to snap out of it. Yet, there are scary moments when I know I want to open my eyes but I simply can't. No matter how hard I try my eyelids stay shut. That's when I started panic, and sometimes I stopped breathing and panic even more. When all things seem to get out of control, suddenly my eyelids would pop open and a heavy weight seems lifted off my chest. Kinda like exorcism, minus the poltergeist or something. LOL but it is scary.

Sometimes I know I'm dreaming and said in my brain " I'm dreaming, this isn't real " but then I keep on dreaming anyway. There are other instances when I dreamed about bad stuff and woke up crying. o.O

I can't come forcefully out of a dream! It just doesn't work. By the time I realize that the i am dreaming, the dream is already over. The only remedy is to prevent dreams in the first place. Sleep in a warm bed. Keep the room quiet (but not too quiet so you're subconscious become paranoid) and sleep...

Isn't it called "lucid" dreaming when you are aware that you're dreaming and then you either wake yourself up or control it?
Well ya I had that before, I was being chased by a person (I hate being chased in dreams because for some reason you run SO slow) and I tripped, and I think that's when I realised I was in a dream. So I told myself to get and run and I fell into a whole (that's the other thing I hate about dream...anything can happen!) and I just told myself, "wake up! c'mon its just a dream, wake up!" That's about it, nothing special.
But the lucid dreaming didn't happen for a while...only on occasions. Like one time I was able to communicate to a person in my dream but the person answered back in complete gibberish and broken sentences. *laugh* dreams are so weird!

I don't really know if I have a technique, but usually when I am aware that I'm dreaming, I could choose to continue on with it or stop it at a certain point. Usually when I'm a bit anxious or scared, I would stop it and just wake up. I remember a dream I had recently where I "left" something and when I was about to get it back, someone tried to snatch it in front of me. In my dream, this was something important and probably letting others take it made me want to stop to know what would happen after they've taken it away.

What's even more interesting is how I'm able to influence my dream from what my mind's current state is in before I fall into a short sleep. I guess my mind wanted "simulate" what would happen if something came. I was in the office and I was a bit tired because of lack of sleep (since I work in night shift and it takes a lot, and I mean A LOT of energy out of me). I was monitoring an application whether we're going to encounter some major problems. I wasn't aware that I already fell asleep, but I was still in front of the computer and when I looked at the application, a severe problem just popped up, and once that happened, I suddenly woke up, realizing everything was just a dream. Even up to know I find it funny, amazing and a bit freaky. I've told that to one of my officemates and he was even at awe at how fast I was able to shift from waking state to dreaming state.

i can't wake myself up, i wake up when nightmares on the worst possible point. sometimes i realize its a nightmare but i can't wake up and sometimes i don't want to wake up but i can't stop it

Wow this is a great topic. Dreaming has always been strange for me. Ever since I was really little (4 or so) I've been able to control my dreams. I can force myself to dream about something, stop a dream I don't like, change what's happening inside a dream, or force myself to wake up. I'm not really sure how I figured it out, it just happened. I've only recently found out that this is actually 'lucid dreaming'.

As for waking up, it seemed to happen naturally. I'd focus my mind on being awake and ignore anyone or anything inside the dream. I would refuse to move along with it and sort of plant myself in one spot. After a couple minutes (I think) I'd be awake. I later found out that all this is a family trait.