Reality check

Hey. I haven’t posted here in a while. I’ve had a total of three lucid dreams, but my last one was unfortunately around four months ago. Needless to say, this is a tad discouraging. I blame myself for not remaining constant with reality checks; at some point I started to lose interest from lack of results, and now I’m trying to spark my excitement over dreaming again. I had a question about a particular reality check. I don’t exactly have perfect vision, but I don’t wear my glasses on a regular basis either. I don’t remember having a dream that’s included me wearing my glasses, so I was wondering if anyone who’s used the so-called “vision” reality check, having perfect vision in a dream when in reality your vision is less than perfect, has had better results using it than other reality checks, such as looking at your hands.

Well I would not consider that to be a reality check. That sounds more like a dream sign to me. I have a similar thing. In real life I smoke cigarettes but, never in my dreams.

I have posted this on many threads but, I think it is important. Too many people seem fixated on doing reality check’s that they forget about the important part of the exercise,.which is to question your reality. The actual reality check it’s self is unimportant. What is important is that you take a moment and seriously consider the possibility that you might be dreaming. Look around your environment and search for clues to prove what state you are in. Then, do a reality check as final proof of your current state. Optionally, you could say, “Ok I am not dreaming now but, if I were what would it be like?” Then take a moment and try to experience everything as if it were a dream. Look for dream signs then try to imagine yourself doing something that you want to do in your dreams.

Anyway, that is just my opinion on the matter. Different things work for Different people but, give what I described above a try and see how it works for you.

For me, I really believe I don’t even have to do an actual “reality check”. I can just remember Lucid Dreaming and make sure I’m not dreaming in whatever way I want, even if it’s just stepping back and saying, “Ok, I’m not dreaming am I?”. I doubt actually doing something matters much…

Yea, Reality checks help but they are not essential. Reality checks help you by getting you to consistently ask “Am I Dreaming” in real life. This will eventually carry iver in to your dream life and you will get Lucid more often.

very important point
to often people including myself just do the reality checks without thinking about it and what happens for me in a dream is that i will do them but not really consider the fact that i may be lucid

My reality checks nowadays seem to mostly consist of me looking around a little and see if everything makes sense. If I’m in some strange place or there are stuff there that aren’t at all supposed to be there or if I’m doing something I wouldn’t do IRL then I know it’s a dream. Or sometimes I just know it’s all a dream without even thinking that much about anything :tongue:

I did a reality check in a dream a couple of weeks ago and decided that I wasn’t dreaming! On another similar occasion I was telling someone about lucid dreaming, whilst dreaming, and didn’t catch on. And the same as this happened on yet another occasion where I had just had a (non-lucid) dream where I was watching a very talented musician play something which, at the time, I could remember. I then woke up and told my housemate (who’s not really interested in lucidity but is interested in music) that I’d just come up with something really good through my dream. At the point of telling him this I was actually still dreaming but did not realise (ie I woke into another dream). By the time I actually physically woke up I had forgotten the music and was frustrated by the fact that talking about lucidity whilst dreaming should have made me realise that I was dreaming. Is this normall?

Hey RoyFLH.

Yes it is normal it is called a FA. Try to do a RC everytime you wake up to be sure you’re not dreaming, this is a way to get lucid. Music in dreams sure rox doesnt it :smile:

Thanks for the advise Xetrov. And yes, music in dreams is amazing. I’ve heard of false awakenings, although when I woke into the other dream I don’t actually recall the whole waking and getting out of bed process. Just being awake (thinking I’m awake) and remembering the previous dream, then talking about it. It’s the fact that I’ve sometimes asked myself “Am I dreaming” whilst dreaming and come to the conclusion that I’m not which worries me. That’s an extreme level of realism. I don’t normally have this problem as I’m lucid fairly often, mostly without any dream signs. I’ll just be somewhere, doing something and I’ll stop and think “Hold on, I’m dreaming” with no abnormalities to trigger it off. Maybe I should try the holding the nose and breathing through it technique when I next do a reality check!

YES! i met someone once who, as a child (hes noe in his early 20’s) always asked if this was real, or if he was awake, or if he was imaging all this, and now hes lucid every time he dreams. therefore, i think this is paramount in becoming lucid, asking if your waking life is “real”