As you're starting to fall asleep, do you get kind of an advanced warning that you're going to have a nightmare so you can wake yourself up?

I really don’t have nightmares any more (which I just realized—isn’t that odd?) but when I was a kid, if I started to drift off to sleep and I got this black, falling, spinning sensation, like I was getting sucked into a whirlpool then I knew that was the harbinger of a nightmare, so I’d wake myself up and start over until I didn’t have that feeling any more. Sometimes had to try it 4 or 5 times, but I’d eventually get it licked. One time I decided to just let it happen. OMG. I can remember that horrible dream to this day.