My present theory is that dreaming is an active, tho unconscious, deed. So step 1 is to make the unconscious, conscious. And then step 2 is to stop dreaming.
More mundane examples : Turn off the movie. Quit the game. Close the book. Alarm clock goes off.
But that’s just me. I want to hear your opinions on this subject.
If I become aware I’m in a dream and want it to end, I usually try to focus on the feeling of my body in bed. Once I become conscious of my physical body it’s basically impossible to stay in the dream.
I did something similar once.
I was into “concentration meditation” at the time. Using “the feeling of breath in the tip of my nose” as my object of concentration.
So I was in a dream (I was in a windowless, slightly cluttered basement, talking to some people, thinking about going upstairs) when it occurred to me to concentrate on my (real physical) nose.
The light started strobing. A slow strobe. Like 0.7 hz. The whole light of the dream. Like somebody was flicking the basement light on and off