I’m having a big problem gettind to be lucid: my reality checks are failing. I have them in dreams, and they don’t work, I’ll try to put a hand through something, and (I guess because it allways fails in real life) I just dream it stops there! Is there some way to fix this?
You definitely need to try some other reality checks. Not all of them are going to work every time, especially that one. Try plugging your nose, if you can still breathe, then you’re dreaming. I think that one is pretty reliable. Also try doing more than one kind of reality check at a time. By the way, the fact that you are at least doing reality checks in your dreams at all is a good sign! 
Thanks for the reply, very encouraging! I’ll try to integrate more methods to my RC’s. I can’t do the breath one because I’m really good at holding my breath and I don’t wanna do minute long RC’s.
/looks back at list of suggested reality checks
Yeah, there’s some good stuff there.
I completely agree with Mike716. Some RC’s work for people and don’t work for others. So you have to test different reality checks.
You can find an interesting list here: Your favorite RC
Good luck!
Thanks for the link, Basilus!
Ok, let me give an update on my situation: I managed to RC successfully several times last night, but apparently realizing I’m dreaming wakes me up and I can’t stop the RC’s. I woke up at least five times last night, each time trying a plethora(<sp?) of methods to stay dreaming. So I was kinda tired all day today. 
The excitement always used to wake me up too. Just stay calm, is the main thing I found.
Oy, this happened to me last night. I was in an elevator going sideways and it occurred to me this might be unusual. So I tried to poke my finger through my other palm, no luck. Then I held my nose and couldn’t breathe through it. I gave up after that, boo!
I need to get back into the habit of wearing a digital watch IRL, I guess. Checking the digits and seeing them all 8s or all blacked in has worked for me before.
Dude. I find my watches lately are VERY difficult to read in dreams. They are always fuzzy or something. But When I can see the time and perform the reality check, for some reason, the difference in time is nowhere NEAR what it used to be when I was first starting my LDing adventure a year or two back. It used to be by hours and minutes, or even unreadable symbols. But now its by like two minutes, or forty-five seconds. Y’know. I also see lately that I remember doing reality checks and going lucid, but then I forget what happens after that. IT sucks. Any helP?
Poking fingers through your hand seems to be a pretty unreliable RC. A little more reliable is poking through non boldily solid objects, but I wouldnt always count on that one too much either (although it nearly always works for me).