I don't know if this is the same thing but as a kid, I used to have very vivid, regular nightmares. They would be different every time but the general theme was that I was trying to get away from something, running and hiding. Whatever it was that was after me was extremely frightening and I'd feel a huge sense of panick if it got close to me.
I'm not sure how this happened but one night I was having one of these nightmares and suddenly felt that I didn't have to put up with it any more and could actually control them to some extent. To start with I could wake myself from them at any point, I'm just start blinking in the dream and this must have made me do it in real life as well, making me wake up. After doing this a few times, I felt confident enough to allow myself to drift back off to sleep and face the nightmares, as you said, I was aware that I was dreaming. Eventually I could actually control the path of the dreams and either face or expell the thing that was frightening me.
I have disturbing dreams now and then, same as most people but I have never been that frightened by a dream since. Even when I do have them, it's usually something bad happening to people I care about rather than anything happening to me.
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