A waking phase? Personally, I don't know what that is. I seem to wake up with a start every time, all through the night each time I awake. I don't come gently out of sleep. My eyes just open, the dream is gone and I'm laying there. I don't really feel a "disconnect" between my dream and waking life at that point. To me, it sort of feels like travelling, like I travelled from the dream to the real world, which feels perfectly normal.

I wake up alot during the night. I don't think I sleep for more than three hours straight unless I'm really drunk!

Waking up alot doesn't affect my lucid dreaming, though.

Interesting hearing about this waking phase.