It’s not that movies need to be all realistic, but the dramatization of someone waking up from a nightmare has been overplayed for a while now. I can’t speak for everyone, but I never wake up from a bad dream by sitting bolt upright, breathless, and yelling out.
That might be appropriate in a comedic, retro, ultra stylized, or animated movie, but serious dramatic stories can benefit from subtlety. There’s undoubtedly more out there, but Cooper waking up from his failed flight nightmare in Interstellar struck me as one of those effective subtleties.
The whole opening scene here is pretty good, when you know how the story goes and can pick up on the foreshadowing and symbolism in the dialogue.
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When you don’t use a dramatic convention, it’s because you want to put the focus elsewhere. In this case, as you note, they had a better dramatic portrayal in breaking the convention.
Wonder what the interaction would have been if he reacted as normal in movies, and his daughter was at the door as in the scene. Would’ve hinted at a much different kind of movie.