I'm not sure what I do. It feels kinda like relaxing a muscle at the back of my skull. If I visualize that part of myself, I usually wake up- if I can. Sometimes that's enough to get my eyes open, and then I have to overpower sleep paralysis, which I've gotten better at.
Sometimes I think I've done it but I've actually fallen back asleep, and those are the most annoying dreams.
This time my mother was driving me and some other me's. Once again we were going much too fast, maybe I was back in the apocalypse dream from before. We were following a cliff by the ocean, she always loved the beach. She drove us down a ramp onto a loooong flat table of rock cut out from the cliff. Like an unfinished Minecraft project.
The table had an end, and we were headed right for it. I warned her and we skidded to a stop, the front wheels hanging off the edge. I remember thinking it was dream-like yet didn't realize it was a dream. I was so relieved, particularly as she was able to reverse the car (rear wheel drive, I remember observing).
But we kept reversing, faster and faster. I had already spoken up once and remained quiet, not wanting to be a bother. We careened off the opposite end of the table. A male me warned us to hold our breath and I did, just in time. Water rushed in impossibly fast. I remained eerily calm, taking my time to unfasten my safety harness. Surely this was all okay, some plan I didn't understand, and if I remained calm I'd be just fine. My male counterpart was scrambling to unbuckle me, panicking.
I looked up at how far away the surface was, and woke myself up.