Dream anomaly?

Just earlier today at around 5am, I was awoken from a very bad dream (or nightmare).  But I was surprised to realize that I was able to deduce that I was inside a dream.  Sounds like in the movies yes, but I did.
Here are the combinations or factors that (which I think) made it possible:

1. You have to wake up at least once and then get back IMMEDIATELY.  I think it is required that you "re-enter" your dreamstate as quickly as possible after being awake.  Otherwise, you might lose the "connection" to that dream.
2. The dream/nightmare has to be continuous.  If you watch movies or play music then you'll be familiar with the "pause" button.  You click it to "suspend" the media from playing "without restarting".  And you press it again to "resume" the playing.  The dream should also be like this.  It's hard and I don't know how to command it, it just so happens that some of my dreams are like that.  I wake up like running from a place, woke up and when i fall back to sleep I am right back in the running scene.  If that doesn't happen then just like in the first factor you might lose the "connection".
3. You should try or be able to pick-up part of reality in the awaken state (ex. by awake you know that you're no longer dreaming) and then as soon as you get back to your dreamstate it should be carried over.  Fortunately I think that's what happened to me.  Since the time lapse between being awake and back in dreamland was very minute (maybe less than a minute) then I think I was able to "capture" that "awaken state" and took it with me back in dreamland.

Back in the nightmare, when it seemed to me that some things are not right in the settings, I suddenly realize "hey, I was already awake, so this means it's just a dream".
Unfortunately, I couldn't wake myself up even after that realization.  But at least I was able to scream since I thought this was my chance to be awaken.

Happy dreaming to us all!