Good on you. I remember the hands technique, but I was never conscious of it working for me - which doesn't mean it didn't, necessarily.
It's true that repeated waking-but-not-actually-waking (just moving into a new dream in which you're waking) can happens, and can cause anxiety. Bertrand Russell reported it and it's happened to me. However, the fifth or sixth time that happens to you, you know it won't keep going forever, you know you're just waking slowly. After that, repeated false waking is not anxiety producing, it's boring. Soooo boring as you wait to actually wake up for realz.
The opposite can happen too. I was sleeping in an unfamiliar room when I saw an interesting invention in a dream, realized that I was sleeping and became desperate to wake up and write it down so I didn't forget it. That urgency accelerated parts of the waking process, but not the whole process. I got my real, waking vision back before I got any body sensation or the inner ear back. So I was frozen for a bit but immensely puzzled by what I saw 'cause what I thought was "up" was actually "sideways" and I was in a new real room that was new to me. I did get to write the invention down in the real world shortly after though, after all of my brain woke up.
It's true that repeated waking-but-not-actually-waking (just moving into a new dream in which you're waking) can happens, and can cause anxiety. Bertrand Russell reported it and it's happened to me. However, the fifth or sixth time that happens to you, you know it won't keep going forever, you know you're just waking slowly. After that, repeated false waking is not anxiety producing, it's boring. Soooo boring as you wait to actually wake up for realz.
The opposite can happen too. I was sleeping in an unfamiliar room when I saw an interesting invention in a dream, realized that I was sleeping and became desperate to wake up and write it down so I didn't forget it. That urgency accelerated parts of the waking process, but not the whole process. I got my real, waking vision back before I got any body sensation or the inner ear back. So I was frozen for a bit but immensely puzzled by what I saw 'cause what I thought was "up" was actually "sideways" and I was in a new real room that was new to me. I did get to write the invention down in the real world shortly after though, after all of my brain woke up.