i did a reality check. i read a paper with words on it, looked away, and read it again and it said the same thing. but i really felt like i was dreaming so i did another check. i looked at my watch, looked away and looked back and it read the correct time. but i really was dreaming because i woke up later and rememebered dreaming this.
so now i don’t trust using those reality checks. does anyone know of any other reality checks that work as good as those were supose to? or something else that might help?
Yeah, that happens to me, too. I can look at one clock, then my digital watch and they say the same thing. Now I’ve gotten used to reading the watch and using the indiglo button (which often doesn’t work in a dream).
There are lots of things you can do, though. I think doing physical RCs has been working well for me lately. Like, when I walk up or down some stairs (I often dream about stairs) I ask myself if it’s easier or harder on my legs than usual. And that’s been working in my dreams too…
The key is to try different things for RCs, and to try to make them involve dreamsigns-things you dream about a lot (that’s why stairs are perfect for me).
Good luck Keep at it, it’s worth it,
Ian
I think it’s important to tell yourself “I’m dreaming” and try to imagine that you’re dreaming during the reality check. before you check your watch, try something- like floating, maybe…
because if you practice just looking at your watch, you’ll dream about it, but won’t do anything else. But habitualizing yourself with doing an RC is important so that when that happens in your dream, you’ll ask yourself if you’re dreaming.
thanks for the advice i will defidently try both things that you mentioned.
yeah i feel kind of close, and that is why it is a little frustrating, but i try and not let myself get too frustrated.
how long did it take you to gain ultimate control of your dreams?
i can only be lucid for a little while and i also think that i am having trouble remembering my entire lucid dream. did you ever have those problems?
i’m thinking maybe the more i “practice”, so to speak, the easier it will be to make my lucid dreams longer so i can actually do stuff. do you feel that that is true? or is there some tips you can give that might speed my process along?
just keep working at it. i also had the problem with not remembering even lucid dreams. you’ll start getting better at that as you write your dreams down, and with experience. in the beginning i was frustrated because i didn’t know what was “triggering” my lucidity… now i’m figuring that out with experience.
you will probably start to have LDs with increasing frequency. things will start to work themselves out through trial and error.
as for “ultimate control,” i don’t have that by any means.
still working on it ,
ian
Well, if the word thing and clock thing don’t work for you, then you can do what I do. When I approach a familiar door, I take a minute to visualize what should be on the other side, and if it’s different when I open it, then I know I’m dreaming. It’s only worked for me once, when I opened my bedroom door and found not my bed but a roller rink in my room. I lost lucidty pretty soon after that, but it was fun skating around and acting nuts in front of the girls until the cops ran in.
Allow me to explain why those reality checks didn’t work for you.
The first time you look at your watch, it might display a normal, valid time. Then, you remember that time so that when you look back you can see if it has changed or not. Since you are thinking about the time that you originally saw, sure enough, there it is back on the watch.
When you read the text, you memorized what it said. Then when you looked back at it, since you were thinking about what it said earlier, sure enough that’s what it says again. I find that I can’t trust doing it casually like this, becuase sometimes it doesn’t work.
You need to actively try to change the time or text yourself. Think of a different time when you look back at it, or just stare at it and try really hard to change the numbers on it. This works for me every time.
Keep at it, it’s worth it,