Hey Rhodester,
Sounds like you have pretty good control over your lucid dreams. I have no problem performing reality check during the day, I just had trouble transforming them into reality checks at night.
I think that I’ve been doing them so long that I don’t spend enough time on each of them now. But I still think that they are important and I am trying to make then “new” to me again.
ypm.
Ah Milod - I wish this was true for me. My Critical faculty hasn’t come online yet. I do extensve reality checks during the day - i.e. looking at digital clock, reading text, questioning whether or not I am in a dream…and since I started trying to have Lucid Dreams (5 weeks ago) have not had a DILD induced lucid dream where I question my state in the dream.
Hmmmm…
Yeah, what about all of us who do lots o’ RC’s when we’re awake, but not ever when we’re dreaming?
Anyone got any idea of the cause of that?
Peace,
Sruthan
You don’t do them often enough. Truly.
Some people need to do them very often, others… not.
In a dream you have only a selection of your everyday habits, and sometimes even a very strong intention is not enough. It may seem that frequent RC’ing is a large part of your waking life, but so are many other things, for example eating.
And I think in many cases your subconscious fights against your will to have LD’s - by removing from your dreams recurring themes when you notice them.
Best conditions to have LD’s are in the beginning, when you’re novice dreamer, still interested and very excited (I had my first LD after 3 days of practising). Then your motivation starts to fade and you get used to the topic - LD’ing is no longer something new.
Reality checks and dream signs are really a strange thing. (At least for me). I have good list of dream signs in my dream journal that occur in my dreams almost every night. Yet the presents of these dream signs never causes me to realize I am dreaming. (Except one. flying) I had a dream where I was a crocodile and I was talking to a bunch of people about how crocodiles fly to catch birds. Now the fact that I was a talking crocodile and giving a lecture to people about how we fly to catch birds did not cause me to become lucid. Yet the very second I jumped into the air to demonstrate my bird catching techniques, something in the back of my mind said wait crocodiles can’t fly. This is a dream and I was lucid (and human) from that point on and had an awesome lucid dream.
Even though dream signs seldom cause me to become lucid I still believe that doing reality checks and writing my dreams down in the morning does some how wake up my critical reasoning in my dreams.As a result most of my DILD occure because I just get this feeling that this is not real and is a dream. Then I will do my RC just to prove it. Even when I practice WILD I find that my LD 's go down when I don’t do reality checks or write in my dream journal.
Hey milod789,
I agree with you, as I said above most of my lucid dreams just happen, sans RC’s, but part of what my daily RC’s do for my is keep my interest in Lucid Dreaming high and keep me thinking about them throughout the day. Which I think helps me become lucid in my dreams.
ypm.
r3m0t and pav … hmmm …
Both interesting points, almost contradictory… whether or not someone does “enough” RC’s may not be the only variable. I think there are many things I do often IRL that I never do in a dream.
And yeah, the beginner’s luck is a very effective method, but it doesn’t work for long! LOL … so I just wanna get closer to the point some people have developed having pretty frequent LD’s after working on it for a while.
Peace,
Sruthan
Ypm
I agree. I also find that reading and posting on this forum helps a lot. Like you said anything that keeps you focus and interest in LD ing up during your day life carries over to your dream life. At least for me.
That’s why I’m not a big fan of RC’s. They failed me many times in the past. I usually use my feeling when I question about my world. It usually is enough to give my dreams away, but if I need some extra proofs that I’m dreaming then I use some kind of RC’s. Mostly holding-my-nose-and-breathing-through-my-nose RC works the best for me. It’s the most reliable one I know rather than other RC’s that I have tried. Reading, light on/off, close one eye and look to nose, etc. failed me many times.
Reading RC is ok if I EXPECT something to change because if I don’t expect something to change, then it won’t… hence the failure of RC’s.
Good luck. 
Dm7
First I want to say that I have read a lot of your posts and found them to be very helpful in my own exploration of LD ing.
I don’t know why I have a habit of doing a RC after I already know I am dreaming. There was only one time that I ever needed to do a RC was when a dream character was trying to convince me that I was not dreaming. I was almost convinced and became confused. I did a RC that failed so I knew I was dreaming. I then made the naughty dream charicter disappear and continued with my dream.
Most of the time I somehow just know it is a dream. However, most of the books on the market place a high importance on recognizing dream signs. Have you found dream signs to be effective in producing LD.
I feel that my dreamsigns are not blatant enough. Most of my dreams seem to contain contextual dreamsigns and these seem the hardest to spot. My critical faculty (after 6 weeks of trying to LD) still hasn’t kicked in and I don’t question whether I am dreaming when I am dreaming.
Perhaps most disturbing is that my Dream Recall is declining. Over the past three days I have not been able to recall a single dream. THis is odd because the first night I began to practice I recalled 3 and since then I’ve been able to recall at least fragments of 1 per day. I know I won’t make progress unless I can recall and I wonder what’s going on…every night I intend to remember my dreams…
How exaclty do dream sign work?
Do you just tell yourself that if you see these things in a dream you will realize your dreaming? My Dreamsign recently is playing hockey( i dont know why i dont actually play hockey) I dream it atleast once almost every night. I tell myself That i will realize I am dreaming but I never do.
Any tips?
Plebian
RE: can’t remember dreams anymore.
I think I remember you saying(under a different topic) that you keep a dream journal. That should help you remember more dreams in the morning.
When you first wake in the morning try and remember your dreams before you do anything. You can forget your dreams in a mater of seconds.
You can try to get more sleep. Maybe go to bed 1 hr earlier and/or get up an hour later. I find that the mor sleep I get the better I remember my dreams.
I keep my dream journal next to my bed so that if I wake up in the middle of the night I can write just a sentence or 2 a bout what I just dreamed. That is usually enough to remember the dream in the morning. (You could also set you alarm to wake you in the middle of the night)
You may not have to do anything. On average I remember 1-3 dreams per night. With out waking throughout the night. Yet there are times when my dream recall is not as good. But that often passes in a few days. I don’t know why it happens could be many factors. (Not enough rest, stress, could be anything). However, it does pass.
Also, if you consume alcohol, or certain medications including over-the -counter medications can affect your dream recall. There are also some over the counter meds that help with dreaming and dream recall. I have not tried them but there are many threads on this forum about them.
I have a feeling it is something that will pass in time. I would not worry unless it does not get better after a week.
ToBedAndBeyond
Yes dream signs are strange. In theory what you said is right. You make a list of dream signs and tell your self that next time you will remember you are dreaming. In reality it is not that easy. I miss blaitent dream signs every night.
You could try:
In time you will find yourself questioning your reality while you are dreaming. You will just know that you are dreaming. Read anything you can get your hands on about lucid dreaming. There is a lot of info out there many of it for free on the internet. I also recommend Exploring The World of lucid dreaming and lucid dreaming in 30 days.
Good luck.
I got Lucid dreaming in 30 days because I couldnt find laberges book. I didnt much care for it. Too structured. Im still waiting for a copy of EWLD to come in.
Hey ToBedAndBeyond,
One way to try to try increasing your recognition of dream signs when you are dreaming is to try to recognising them throughout your day. So if a common dream sign / dream occurance is the phone ringing to a reality check every time the phone rings.
Of course this is hard if your dream signs involve flying beds…
ypm.
ToBedAndBeyond
You can buy Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming on this site. Just click on the books link on the top of the page. There is also a free e book on lucid dreaming. If I can find it I’ll post a link to it here.
Thanx milod.
Last night I became lucid by DS and when I went to do the light flipping RC it failed because the lights turned on and off. I guess I had become very lucid at that point… llucid enough to control the light.