Shutting eyes, to wake up.

I remember growing up, whenever i had nightmares and such, or whenever it got to scary or too much to handle - i use to shut my eyes real hard and after a moment of darkness, i would wake up. I would do this literally, every time, and it always worked.

I've learnt to forget this "technique", has anyone else had or done something similar?

For some, closing their eyes always wakes them up, for others (like myself) it doesn't effect the dream world in the slightest. When you were younger, I doubt it was the fact that you were shutting your eyes that woke you, but moreso the strong will to wake up which was executed through shutting your eyes (For as you stated, you did when things got too much to handle, so you really wanted to wake up). I would assume if you put enough willpower (for lack of a better description) into it then you would be able to use that method to wake up.

Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to force themselves to wake up, just change the dream if it gets to scary. Because of this, I haven't really tried it, but if you can make things happen in a dream by expecting it, then you can probably wake up by expecting that closing your eyes will do so.

Good luck, and welcome to the forums. :)

Never did anything physical, I just thought to myself "I want to wake up" and it happened. Although when I was a kid nothing ever worked. I just had to wait it out. :(

This rememberd me,
when I was a kid, my later nightmares started with sort of a disclamer.
It went something like this (I could see the white text on a black background, also, I'm dutch, so I'll try to translate it as good as possible:cheeky:)
"Caution, stop right here.
You are about to enter a nightmare
This nightmare will scare you and will contain scarry things
Do you wish to continue?
If not, wake up now"

and below that was kind of a choice that I could make, "Continue" or "Wake up"
ofcourse I always chose the latter :D

When I was a kid, if I ever wanted to wake up, I'd just open my eyes as wide as I could. Jolted me awake every time. I wish I had as many lucid dreams as I did back then...

Any time you lose the visual component of a dream, things can become unstable. I try to avoid darkness or closing my eyes. It doesn't always wake you up, but it can.

Just thinking about waking up can make it happen, independent of any action in the dream.