I wonder how many of you experience this same condition: I am almost always in an unfamiliar location in my dreams (99% of the time). Whereas, I am typically in familiar locations in waking life. So if anything would be considered a dream sign, this would be it. However, being aware of my location is about as hard as being aware of dreaming. I have come up with sort of a mental game to help me, though.
First, let me start by mentioning three other factors that I have found to be consistent about dreams: Legibility (trying to read something in dreams, especially a digital watch, and it becomes scrambled). People (which demand most of our attention during our interactions). Circumstances (just as you have plot, tension, and adversity in any good story or movie–it captivates you).
This is basically a battle between objective vs subjective. Location and Legibility are objective, while Circumstances and People elicit the emotions, anxiety, etc. So it is a constant battle of:
Location & Legibility
VS
People & Circumstances
Legibility includes reading street signs and names of establishments. Thus, it can help me to be more in tune with my location. Zoom IN to legibility, and Zoom OUT to location (back and forth, like focusing a lens). I will also be wearing my digital watch most of the time. Besides legibility, I can use my watch for its repeating countdown timer, to go off at regular intervals, in order to do more reality checks (my timer has a vibrate feature so it won’t interfere in social situations).
For Location, I need to be able to identify the name of the place (grandma’s house, Safeway, etc) and the name of the street. If I cannot do that, I’m probably dreaming.
With regards to people, dream characters are typically not very helpful with lucidity, for even if you tell them it is a dream, they will either disregard you or argue with you. So be independent and suspicious.
Circumstances are random and they trigger certain feelings and thought patterns. Every action has a reaction. But our responses, though typically automatic, are a choice. There are many ways to respond to a given situation. Try to insert a Location & Legibility check before going into problem solving mode. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if it turns out you are dreaming, then you would be wasting your time and missing opportunities by engaging that issue.