How often to do Reality Checks?

How often during the day should i look at my hands, i have been doing it like every 15 mins or so and saying is this a dream. And looking at my watch a few times also. Is this right?

Seems like you have a busy task doing all those RCs each day :smile: Yeah you’re doing great, but it’s important not to overdo it. Because then it could have the opposite effect: no LDing or anything…
Experiment with different RCs and change your RC rate from time to time. Don’t change it every day, but keep your present RC rate for a few weeks until you’ve become used to it. After this you can change your RC or your rate. This way you can decide for yourself which rate/RC works best for you. It really depends from person to person.
Good luck! :wink:

Take heed of the wise Mystic. :smile:

Seriously though, I’d just like to add something. Spontaneously performing reality checks all throughout the day is a great way to encourage lucid dreaming, but you might also find it useful to attach them to something constant. For example, do an RC every time you see or do a particular thing in waking life. That way, rather than hoping to spontaneously remember to RC in your dream, you’ll hopefully do them reliably when that same object or trigger appears in a dream. This is of course much more effective if you can identify what you most commonly dream about first (which is where good recall comes in).

If you commonly dream about dogs, try to get into the habit of performing an RC when you see a dog in real life. That way you’ll eventually develop an association between the two, and subconsciously the dream about dogs will lead to you performing a reality check. It might take a few days of recording dreams to work some of your common ‘dreamsigns’, but it’s a great start.

Good luck. :smile:

Lol :smile:

I knéw I forgot to mention something… Nice one Atheist :wink:

I guess that the more the better. If you do more RC’s in real life, you’ll be more likely to do one in a dream and become lucid. BTW, which RC technique do you guys think work best (looking at hands, trying to fly, looking away from a text and back, etc.)?

I usually find some text, or a reasonable set of numbers, and glance at it a few times while intentionally trying to change it. Digital time displays, street signs, price tags, anything. Checking it twice to see whether or not it has changed is one thing, but actually trying to change it is significantly more effective, I’ve found. It more reliably illustrates an inconsistency that can help to enforce the knowledge that you’re dreaming.

That said, it’s not so much the method as the state of mind which is important. Usually you’ll become lucid at the mere thought of performing a reality check, even before you’ve decided which one to use. It does help to carry through with the RC anyway though, just as a stabilization method.

I recommend practicing as many different RCs during the day as possible, rather than staying with the same one or two each time. That way, you have more chance that a dream will present the appropriate situation for you to remember to perform at least one of them. For example, if you see a digital clock, you’ll be prompted to perform a variant of the watch RC. If you notice your hands, you can perform the finger-counting RC. If you see a street sign, you’ll remember to use the changing text RC, etc.

You can’t go wrong trying everything to see what works for you. :smile:

Quote: Athiest
Checking it twice to see whether or not it has changed

woa, makes me think of Santa clause ( :music: hes checking his list, hes checking it twice, to see if youve being nauty or nice :music: )… lets hope he isnt in a dream, and checks my list twice, then it might turn up nauty!!

Athiest, you said its always good to do the RC anyways, for stabalation, id like to agree with that with much examples piled up in my brain. Nearly half my LDs arent stabalised with a RC. Not doing this, my LDs are bland, non vivid, and low level LD. id