Failed Reality Checks.

moved from gen luc

I was dreaming and realised it must be a dream. I tried counting my fingers but the result was correct. I tried it again but it failed again (Means I got same and correct number of fingers again). Still I was somehow sure that it was a dream. I thought to myself. “If its a dream, show me some x” (where x is some specific person), No-one appeared. Then I thought I would try a reality check holding my nose but, for some reason I skipped it. Atlast, I got sure that its not a dream and it continued as usual. After sometime I woke up and it was actually a dream.
Has it happened with someone else too? What can i do to avoid this?

You felt trapped in non-lucidity? Yeah, I’ve experienced that a few times. Did that happen in the middle of a night, or after WBTB? My guess is that the stage of sleep is too deep for the brain to increase activity like lucidity usually does.

Some chemicals are keeping you in non-lucid dreaming. But I have no actual info other than my experiences. So, if I’m right, later in the night you would not have that issue. After sleeping 5-6h and then WBTB, you should have no issues becoming lucid.

RCs failing is pretty common anyway. Most of the time just trying other RCs will eventually make you lucid.

Yeah, I think it has happened to all of us :content:

My guess is that using always only one RC increases the chance of it resulting ok even if you are dreaming (hence failing)

I have increased success chance by using several together: hand, nose, totem (it’s a keyring), read text three times, check car digital clock, check environment

That’s worrying, none of the RCs I do except counting fingers and breathing through closed nose works. On the other hand, those two RCs seem to reliably work for me. Maybe. I tend to do RCs after I have become lucid from noticing things being wrong about my dream.

“If this is a dream, show me…” is a secondary RC for me. I personally think it is unreliable. A RC that breaks the laws of nature, for example poking your fingers through your palm or breathing while holding your nose, has more of a shock value. It makes me stop and think more.

For me, the process is usually like this:

“Why am I here? Is it really this late?”
“If this was a dream, there would be a lion on my phone screen”
There is a lion there = I usually get lucid
If there is no lion, I draw a circle in the air with my finger
The circle glows, it is a dream!

Sometimes, if even the circle fails, there is still a persistent idea that this could be a dream. I have never had that feeling IRL, so the feeling itself should be enough to get lucid from, but it isn’t that easy. This is where it is handy to have secondary RCs.

“If this is a dream, this door will open into my childhood home”
“If this is a dream, the next car will fly” etc.

It is easy to fall into the habit of doing RCs. The important step is to stop and think while doing them. “It could be a lucid dream right now!”

I allwys ask myself: “How did i get here? By train or by bicycle? And where have I been 15 Minutes ago?” If I cant find answers to these questions I do a nose RC.