I usually find that I can wake myself up if I'm having a nightmare 9 times out of 10... that last time, I'm just dreaming that I woke up, but I kind of figure out that I'm still asleep because something fucked up is still happening.
There are two things I feel need adding in here...
1. Does anyone else have this problem? Where you're falling asleep, but you're not quite there yet... Suddenly you feel like you're falling straight through your bed and you snap up fully awake? This used to happen in the morning at school all the time
2. Most of the time, it seems that I only have nightmares when the day I had was a GREAT one. Most people tend to have nightmares if they had really shitty days or so, but I find that my nightmares come if I had a really good day. Anyone else have this problem?