I’ve had quite many LD’s over the past years, but currently I’m trying to increasr the frequency of them.
My dream recall is getting great, I do plenty of RC’s and practice WBTB at least every 2nd night. However, as I spend more time trying to have LD’s, my dreams are getting very, very realistic. To the point that reality checks simply don’t work.
For example, I always check my hand, and normally I would end up seeing weird fingers in a dream. Other checks are reading, en the nose RC. But non of these work - words, fingers and my breath function like always.
And the problem is that my dreams are just getting so normal, that I do RC’s out of habit, and not because something weird is happening that makes me suspicious. I often dream about simply doing homework or walking the dog or whatever.
Weirdest of all: I have many, many dreams about LD’ing. For example, last night I dreamt about my teacher giving an optional class about LDs - which is in itself no dreamsign, as I could easily see him doing it. I told him about my own experience, people asked me questions, I performed some RC’s to show how they work… Yet no ‘click’.
OK, last night I eventually ended up with an LD - because in the dream I got home from class (thr one about LD’s) and decided to try WILD and it worked xD - but the whole point is: RC’s just fail in my overly realistic dreams to the point that I can dream about LD’ing without noticing anything.
Has anyone ever heard of this problem? Does anyone have suggestions on how to stop this?
When you do your RCs in real life do you really question your reality? Because I know I go through lazy periods where RCing just becomes a mindless habit and I don’t put in the required mental effort or thought. I’d assume this would make them less effective if I ever remembered to do them in a dream
Ask yourself which one of these two mindsets you usually have:
Mindset #1
“There, I did a Reality Check, now I can do something else.
These Reality Checks during my obvious waking life are kind of tedious, but apparently I have to do them in order to become lucid tonight.”
…or…?
Minset #2
“I wanna make sure that I’m awake now, so let me do a Reality Check - hm… … … it seems like I’m awake, but… can I be sure yet?
Better perform another Reality Check, just to make sure… I don’t trust that first one…”
Never assume that you are awake until you have made absolutely sure by thoroughly testing your current situation.
One good rule of thumb is to always perform them whenever you spot anything that’s even slightly bizarre in waking life, and in any way differs from what you are very used to.
Like said befoe me, it’s a matter of expectation.
When doing the RC, you must expect to be dreaming, you must expect for the RC to prove you’re right now in your bed sleeping.
That’s the only way it will work.
Also, what RCs do you perform? maybe you need to choose RCs that are less prone to false negative in your specific case.
Hmm, yeah… Maybe the RC in which you trace back your steps would work better, as it ask a more active approach towards RCing of you.
I currently use the nose, hand, clock, reading and light switch. All of them used to work. The only completely reliable one is simply looking in the mirror, but those are not everywhere,
Did you try looking at the clock 3 times straight?
Personally I never managed to see the same thing written for 3 times. I think probability is about 5%.
Same for reading.
digital watch display is usually garbled in dreams.
Which means either you can’t understand it at all, or the hour keeps changing every time you look at a watch.
