I’ve made it a habbit to do a reality test everytime I check what time it is because I obviously have a clock available to do one with. Also I try to remeber to do a couple other kinds of reality tests throughout the day when I think about it. I also do a couple when I start reading the forums or a book about LD because the thought is fresh in my head, but again I never go online in my dreams and I never read books in them either. I’m not doing a TON of reality tests but I am doing them a lot. However I never ever get the urge to do one while I am dreaming. Heck I don’t even remeber ever seeing a clock in any of my dreams. I have a lot of other daily habbits that never get translated into my dreams either. For example, I’m diabetic and I have to test my blood sugar before I eat, after I eat, before I drive, and any time I might feel out of wack. I’ve never tested my blood sugar in a dream though, in fact I’m not sure I’ve ever been aware that I’m diabetic while I’ve been dreaming. I’ve only ever had one lucid dream. I noticed somethings that I were doing were quite impossible. Only after I had come to that realization did I do a reality check to be 100% sure. So I guess my question is, are reality checks futile? I never get the urge to do one, or see a trigger to do one while I’m dreaming even though I’ve made a habbit out of it during my waking life. Should I be doing something to increase my likelyhood of doing them while asleep? Should I do them more and just keep at it? Or is reality testing just not an effective method for me and should I work harder at developing MILD or WILD? 
It’s a habbitual thing. If you do them enough durring the day, you will eventually do one durring your dream, without even thinking. this will completly shift your awarness, and cause you to realize you are dreaming. Reality are not futile, as lond as you put real thought and emotion in them durring the day.
a little advice also, when you do them durring the day, don’t just do them, put thought into them, and really ask yourself if you are dreaming. compair your current state of reality with a dream you’ve had, and try to remember how you got to where you are right now. If you do this, it will greatly increase your chances of doing a RC in your dreams 
P.S. you should pick another technique too. RC’s are good, but doing MILD or WILD will only help you master lucid dreaming faster 
You should even combine RC’s with MILD, actually. In your auto sugestion you can incorporate that you will do a RC whenever [insert RC-situation here] happens during your dream.
Another thing you can try out for fun is try convincing yourself, right now if you will, that you are inside a dream(when you are awake)… that right now you are walking inside your own head and everything around you is your mental construct of reality…acctually that is not so far from the truth anyway
i’ve had similiar experiences in my dreams and ussually only notice I’m dreaming when I see something wierd.
I find a good time to take them is everytime you wake up.
Oh, and go read the Big FA Topic. Yes, right through it. It’ll give you FA’s.
That way, you’ll have a FA and then you’ll take a RC (cos you’ve ‘woken up’) and become lucid.
(note: all this is just in theory. Not definate)
yea u should really think whether your dreaming…not just RC.and another great way is to do a RC every time u go through a door even though it is kinda hard 2 remember at the beginning and its kinda a pain 2 do it EVERY door.but if u do…u obviously go through doors in your dream…so it should work…
Haha, excellent! I was looking for someone to mention the door thing. I had read this a week ago and since have tried to realize when I walk through a door. It’s hard! Sometimes I’ll go through 3, 4 doors totally zoned out and not realize it.
Instead of doing a reality check though I just touch the door frame and say “I am aware.” Then I make sure I’m aware and not just say it without thinking of what I’m doing. Last night I got my first LD from doing this (it’s not even an RC, really!)
I was upstairs naked (I loooove walking around naked in my dreams!) and there was this kooked out lady who we were boarding. She was into deep meditation and as I passed her I really didn’t care about being naked in front of her cos the words of my buddy echoed through my mind: “She’s just some weird… meditator lady. She’s totally oblivious.” So I didn’t care at all.
I went downstairs into my room and finally realized I missed the door walking in. I scolded myself for not doing my ritual and walked back to the door, touched the frame and said “I am aware… that I’m dreaming!!!” I went lucid and started to walk down the hall back upstairs. I was a little afraid that something might jump out (a fear I have but will soon have to face) There was a bed in the middle of the hall, taken apart so that the matress and box frame were leaning up again the wall. I squeezed through and kept going upstairs but the dream faded before I could get anywhere and I woke up. NOT. I FA-ed. My RC upon awakening is similar to plugging your nose and shutting your mouth and trying to see if you can breathe. I just shut my mouth and try to breathe through it, bypassing my nose in the first place. I breathed successfully and hopped out of bed but the dream faded again. Darn it! I really have some stability issues! Anyway, I woke up and did the same RC but it failed. I started to write notes in my notepad, noting that I had my LD around 2:45 (it was 2:45 on the clock). The dream soon faded and I was awake in my bed (really awake!!) and it was 5:45. Darn, now I have to make those notes all over! 
Anyway, see how useful checking every time you wake up can be? And the door thing? RCing every time you go through takes time, so I’d suggest just becoming more aware. It’ll definitely give you some LD’s! I’d stress RCing every time upon awakening. Last week I had 3 FA’s in a row, this week I had one or two back-to-back on Monday, Tuesday, and this morning, all following a DILD that faded prematurely. Trust me: DO IT!
And sorry for the longer post, I’m gonna transfer the dream portion to my dream data. 