Pointers for reality checks?

I am new to lucid dreaming, and I want to start the reality checks so that I can become aware in my dreams. However, I was wondering what are the reality checks that become habit the quickest? Thanks.

The ones you do the most and the ones that you understand well.

Its not just a matter of doing a RC, you need to really check your reality. For example, I could look at my watch 100 times a day with half interest and it is likely that I will do the same in my dreams and have no real benefit from.

If on the other hand, I do 100 RC on my watch and really think about it being a dream and what would happen if it were, the chances go up a lot of a lucid dream.

When I started, I used my watch, now I use anything with text, my mobile, watch, a sign. but the idea is to really focus, and if the area allows, ask yourself out loud. You might be surprised at the differences that makes.

While you are working on building up the habit, also work on recall, because if you don’t do that, you may have a lucid dream and not remember it

Thanks for the advice. I’m going to try to start my dream journal soon so these are very valuable hints :smile:

Good luck :smile: it is like running, you will keep getting better and better

I like closing my mouth pinching my nose and trying to breathe in. I find it discrete and a surefire way to know if I’m dreaming or not. I tried using the text and clock ones but in my dreams either I could read it just fine or it was too inconsistent to make me lucid. Really it is whatever resonates with you and works. May have to try a couple. You can always do a bunch in a row.

I try to do it anytime I see anything slightly weird. At one point I had a random alarm reminder and would do an RC then too. Lately I’ve been slacking (past 4 years) but I’m really getting back into it now.

The key things are to make it a habit in that you do it a lot, but not in that it becomes automatic. Do it with purpose.

A good practice is to do several different types of RCs at once. Typically, I would pinch my nose and try to breathe through it, then look at the time 2-3 times in a row to see if it changes, and then look at my hands, for instance. This is because I have found that sometimes a certain RC will behave like it does in waking life while another RC may make you lucid.

In a LD that I had this morning, the time would not change, but the text would change every time I looked at it. In one LD long ago, all RCs didn’t work except for the one when I pinched myself (I felt no pain). The ones that are the most consistent for me are nose breathing, pinching myself, checking the time, reading text and pushing my fingers through my hands.

In the past, when I was doing more DILD-ing than WILD-ing, checking my hands was the most frequent and reliable RC. Something about looking at my hands throughout the day and asking silently to myself (or out loud, as circumstances permitted :wink: ) “Is this a dream?” or “Am I dreaming right now?” had the greatest impact. It’s the RC that just seemed to click for whatever reason. Whenever I would check in dreaming, my hands would look weird in some way…finger tips would disappear or I’d have extra fingers or they hand would look cartoonish in some way.

Looking at my hands is my favourite reality check. I cant remember that ever letting me down. It’s also highly interesting to me all the different weird ways my hands and fingers can go… split hands, extra fingers, deformed fingers, Ive even found plants growing out of my fingers. … that happened after I’d been doing a lot of gardening, obviously my subconscious decided to show “green fingers”.

I cant breath in LD when I hold my nose so that lets me down. I also can intensely feel pain in LDs so any pinch or pain reality checking would be likely to let me down. I also usually cant fly in LDs, so that kind of checking would fail in my case.

Always do more then one reality check and always reality check if something is unusual.

The easiest RC for me has always been trying to put my finger through any solid object. It has never failed me in 15 years, and the good thing about it, is that no matter where you are you will always have a solid object near you…

Give it a try, it takes like a second to do it.

Last night in a very vivid LD I was behaving as if in a common day time aware activity.
I was fully convinced I was in day time awareness.
Fully conscious in dealing with day’s duties.
At a certain time of that “Day” I decided to take a brake and make a RC by blocking my nostrils.
Then out of the clear blue I found myself awaken from deep sleep, with my hand actually blocking my nostrils.
After this profound experience I strongly suspect that Buddhists might be justified in stating that day and night are only two different stages in dreams…
The question after this discovery is:
-How to proceed beyond normal awareness and LD?
-How to escape out of Plato’s cave?