How to Wake Yourself Up from a Nightmare

Hack #1:  Try to wiggle your toes back and forth
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If you've ever experienced having a nightmare, you know the feeling of helplessness. Your mind is conscious but you can't seem to do anything. The tendency is to either move your body but you feel paralyzed, or you try to call for help but no sound comes out of your mouth.

A hack which was shared to me before was instead of trying to move your body, you need to try to move your extremities like your fingers or toes. Focus and wiggle your toes back and forth until you break the paralysis. I took a mental note of this though it occurred to me if I do have a nightmare, will I be able to even remember this trick?!

What happened?  The next time I had a nightmare, I did recall that there was some kind of hack I needed to do but I couldn't remember what it was! Haha.... So while I was paralyzed, I tried to recall what the hack was. Eventually, I remembered that it was to wiggle my toes. Initially, I couldn't move my toes but I focused and slowly, I was able to move them and it worked. I woke up. Whew!

I quickly googled if wiggling toes is a recognized hack to wake yourself from a nightmare and it is.  I also discovered several other hacks.  Here you go -

- Don't fight back coz fighting back will heighten your fear.  Tell yourself it's ok.

- If you feel pressure against your chest, try not to go against it but rather go with the pressure.  For example if you're being pushed against the mattress, just allow yourself to be moved to that direction.

-  Clench and unclench your fist.   This is another alternative to wiggling your toes.   Like what I experienced in wiggling my toes, you may not be able to immediately move them but just focus and slowly, they would budge.

-  Do controlled breathing.  Breathe in normally then exhale fully.  Just repeatedly do this.

-  Think of someone who calms you down.  Usually, I resort to prayer. 

-  Try to cough on purpose.  Do it repeatedly.  

- Make a face like you smelled something bad or squint.  Again, do it repeatedly. 

Articles say you don't have to remember all of these.  In fact, it might be counterproductive to try to do all of them.  So the reco is to just make a mental note of 2 or 3 solutions on how to wake yourself up when you have a nightmare.   I am guessing since our mind is conscious when we have a nightmare, somehow, we'll really be able to to retrieve our mental notes.