Well thanks a really good question, I would have addressed it before but I realized how much I was typing and not on topic so I stopped. But anyway to answer you, and that was a good question, basicly you are correct, as long as you haven't turned on the or a light when you think you heard something out of the ordinary, then actually you should have the advantage. And that's becasue when you wake up you are in the dark and your eyes have actually adjusted to a darker dark (eyes closed no light gets in with the lights out) so when you open your eyes, the room is actually has more than enough light to see by. ( I hope that made sense I for sure messed up the way I said it) The bad guy is coming into your house from outside with a much brighter ambient light, so his night vison is not going to be on par with yours for at least a couple seconds. Plus you know your house layout and the bad guy dosen't so you have two advantages and the BG has zip. At this point. Here's where a light would work very well in your favor but Not if it's on your weapon, (the person will be blinded yes, but odds are that they will get off a snap shot or two in the direction the light came from, so at that point he may or may not get lucky. Try this, and yes you will need to practice it on a regular basis to make it work; have your weapon in your strong hand and the flash light in your weal hand hold it out from your body as far as you can then snap it on. if they get off a snap shop or two, they will be aiming in the wrong direction and your odds in that case go to your favor. Even if you don't get them dead in the light, if it's close enough to get a fair look at them you have a much better chance of hitting your target in those first few seconds than he will. When I was in the Academy that's the way we were trained, and it takes some practice to get right, because you naturally tend to point the flashlight at an angle instead of straight ahead. Has to do with your wrist angle and the way you hold the light. Get a flashlight, (day is fine because you are going to want to see the results) close your eyes hold it as far away from your body as you can then open your eyes, odds are that it will not be pointing straight ahead. It's different for everyone no one is built the same as everyone else, not to mention what you do for a living may impact how your wrist works. Plus it's your off hand (weak) and it's never likely to be as strong as your "strong" side wrist. {you should also practice as much as possible with your off hand when you go to the range so if you are hit and your strong side can't hold the weapon, then you can still use your left hand to fire and hit your target. May not be as pretty or exactly where you wanted to shot, but it beats heck out of not practicing then having to do it and missing totally.} Never ever give the other guy even a remotely even break.
Folks are now or have been saying "oh that's horse hockey, or ya so you can do all that with a handgun but not with a shot gun." or that's not how they do it on TV, All the cops use two hands ya but the light is under the pistol not way away.". Yepper and that's because it IS TV and not Real Life, and because they are limited by camera angles so holding their arm away from their body isn't going to film well at all. And it's all about smoke and mirrors on TV and the Movies. As for shotguns I would tell you to get the shortest legal one you can use in your state, because the longer the barrel the harder it is to turn a corner and be ready to use it. Simply math will show you why that is. I have 2 W/W Model 12 12 gage pumps and one is 18 inches and the other is 19 inches, That's the way they were made, because both of them are Police Riot and Close Quarter Combat weapons. First designed for the US Army in WWI for trench warfare. They are not that easy to find anymore but you can find them and in really good shape. Mine have saved my butt a couple times over the years all the way back to the dark ages. This is where, having a light on your weapon I can deal with and accept. Reason is because the barrel is short, have less issues moving quietly around your house and can actually work really well. Mostly that depends on whether you can a found in the chamber and it's cocked, finger OFF the trigger until you need it. (Racking a shot gun is one of the loudest things you can do and there is no way to do it silently, quietly maybe with practice, but otherwise you have just told the intruder you are awake and armed and they will either cut and run or wait for you to show yourself counting on the barrel being a lot longer so they will spot you before you spot them)
With that in mind however way you chose to do it (and yes auto's work without pumping yes we know that. But even the shortest Remington I have seen had a barrel longer than 18 inches. And no I haven't looked lately, no need to since I already have what I want.) wait until your weapon and yourself are clear of the corner and spot the dark shape you think is the intruder, then put your finger on the trigger and flip on the light and hope things are going your way. I don't give a rats putooty how many engagements you have been it and never got hurt or at least survived, Every single one of them is a crap shoot, Your job is to use loaded dice and hope the other guy isn't.
While we are on the subject of ranking a round into your shot gun, the same thing goes for your pistol, but it is a lot more possible to do that with very little noise, but the object of the exercise is that you have no idea who or what is around that corner or wall and you need to be ready to fire at any time Not just when you think you know where they are. Again and I can Not say this enough, Load the dice, Never give the other guys any chance at all. Your job is to protect your family and yourself in that order, and you can't do that if you take unnecessary risks or give them even the smallish chance because you worry about what the legal things are or that you are to civilized to actually believe that the other person won't shoot if you give them a chance to do the right thing. YES you are scared, YES you may never have ever seen or been in a fire fight of any kind, that's Fine, if someone told me that they weren't scared the whole time until it was over, they are either Lying through their teeth or they are psychopath. And even then I wouldn't bet they weren't at least a little scared.
EEEhhhh this is way long and Way off topic. Anyone whats to carry this conversation on we need to do so in the Free Fire Board