mostly self-analysis through the years, trying to decipher
"what's happening" while I'm waking up, along with some study.
First time I heard of the idea of them running backwards was in
a book i read at 14... probably Linda Goodman's Star Signs or
something like that. I was into New Age type stuff for about 2-3
years as a young teenager. She talked about some experiment of
dropping pennies on ppls bellies that woke them up and asked
them about the dreams they had and they always ended up with
something happening to their stomachs at the end. I've heard
similar things since about it, but not every often, as there's
unfortunately not a lot of good studying done on dreams and
cognition, at least that I've seen.