How can I take advantage of waking up in the middle of the night?

I currently sleep very soundly at night, but I know that after every REM period there is a small period of wakefulness. EVERYONE wakes up in the middle of the night, regardless of whether they remember it or not. My problem is that I would like to try DEILD or WILD from that point (because it doesn't work for me with alarms) but I never really become conscious. Is there a way of taking advantage of these periods of wakefulness WITHOUT a) setting an alarm or b) drinking a lot of water?

You can try to set an alarm that vibrates instead of making noise, like with a cellphone.
You can try to set a tv to turn on (if applicable) by the time you believe a REM cicle will end, the noise and the luminosity from the tv might wake you up.

So do you wake up in the night? If you do, develope some meditatioan routine or ritual for about half an hour, then do an affirmation that you will enter a dream state etc. Ask yourself "what if"..the fill in the rest.

see the yoga nidra post, this is a good practice upon waking and anytime.

I think that this might really help you.