Failed Reality Checks

Last night I read a post by I forget who, but they said that their best reality check was to focus on the middle finger, and if the others became blurry, they were dreaming. Another person said to hold your nose and see if you can breathe through it.

Well, I tried to WILD, but I started thinking about crazy crap and just fell asleep. But all night I dreamed of doing these reality checks. My hand was normal, I could not breathe through my pinched nose, so I determined I was awake. Then I’d wake up and say dammit. I’d go back to sleep and it would happen again.

Also, in previous dreams I’ve had all electronic devices (radio, computer, digital clock, etc.) work fine. Though I’ve never tried the lights. I hear it’s the light levels that get you, not the switch itself. Anywho, any reality check I’ve ever tried in a dream has shown me that I was in fact awake. The only times I become Lucid while dreaming are completely spontaneous. I just realize I’m dreaming, or I know I’m dreaming from the start. So RC’s are not my friend.

Anyone have similar experiences?

I’ve had some similar expeiences, but most of the time my RCs work. However, I don’t do habitual reality checks, I do them when something feels ‘funny’ in a sense. So it might be that those who use RCs to confirm that they are dreaming suceed more often, because they sort of expect the RCs to work.

You say RCs aren’t your best friend, but how many of them have you tried? Everyone’s different, one RC might work for some people and not for others. So you should probably try out different RCs (and there are a whole lot of them) until you find one that works for you.

Last night I was dreaming that I was at school, but everything was different. I was standing on the porch of my dorm (my dorm doesn’t have a porch) looking out over the hills (there are no hills. My school is on the beach.) And I just wondered if I was dreaming. So I ran off the porch and leapt into the air and flew. Then I got excited and saw my roommate and realized I had opened my eyes and I was awake. Dammit… But it seems that the best RC for me is just going, “Am I dreaming?” I think if I get that far I figure it out. I will be trying different RC’s though.

Make sure to check your hands and digital devices twice and not just once. i hear they look normal at first but apon further inspection mess up.

Lightswitchs never seem to work for me in dreams. They have only worked one time and then it was the wrong light that turned on. My favorite RC is counting my fingers, and it has always worked for me.

Good one! I’ll try that. I’ve been checking my hands and trying to breathe through a pinched nose all day. I really can’t do light switches. It’s not practical. There aren’t enough light switches that I’m allowed to touch here, and my roommate would probably be annoyed if I flipped the lights on and off every few minutes.

But yeah. I never check things twice in my dreams. The clocks and small text worked, but I did not double check them. So I’ll see where that goes. I’ve been lucid or near it every night since I began reading this forum. PAPAPAPOW!

The thing about reality checks is that you have to expect them to fail in real life. I always use RC that are impossible to do in real life. Flying is a good one. I will also try to move/change something with my mind. Reading something 2x. I agree with what someone said above if you try and read something or look at your hands or other similar RC you have to do them 2X otherwise they will look normal. I don’t usually become lucid because of RC or dream signs. I usually just know that I am dreaming somehow and do a RC to prove it to my self.

the hold your nose RC has worked for me 100% of the time. i’ve never tried any others. guess beacuse i alwasy expect to be able to breath through my nose. but that’s only because i wanna be lucid so much :content:

Last night was the first time I’ve ever actually used a reality check in a dream…I was layed in my bed and I thought hang on…I don’t feel right, I feel…dramy. So I held my nose and tried to breathe through it, which I could…I thought I just hadn’t got hold of my nose properly…so I did it again. I t worked, and then I held one of my eyes closed and try as I might I couldn’t see my nose, so I knew I was dreaming. First time ever a RC has worked. It was cool, cos then I wanted to make Irvine from FF8 appear,(my sad sick fantasy lol :wink: ) but he wouldn’t come through the door, and then I woke up, and I did the RC again, and I was still dreaming, and I could see Irvines feet and I sat up in bed and then I woke up, but I was STILL dreaming, I didn’t have to do an RC this time, or the next, or the next, or the next, I had about 6 FA 's altogether…ooh…dehjahvoo…ooh.

Dunno, I just thought you might want to know…and I’ve been told that the nose thing usually works for ppl if they don’t think about qwhat will happen if they start breathing, just do it, like auto pilot or something, it got me confused…also that it works really well with the see your nose thing…I would have probably just gone to sleep in the dream and been convinced that I hadn’t held my nose properly if I hadn’t done the eye thing…anyway…yeah.