MatrixMan’s advice about the dreamsigns is very good, it also helps if you categorize them and perform a reality check everytime you encounter one of the dreamsign like situations in real life.
The other key thing about reality checks is that you have to do them frequently enough for them to become habitual. Do 20-30 RC’s a day until you start to perform them without thought, at this point they should began to frequently carry over to your dreams and result in lucidity.
thanks alot 
that really helps me out
I had bit of an unsettling experience during last night’s dreams… I came across a book that mentioned ld4all and did a reality check, half-expecting it to succeed, which it did, so I didn’t go lucid. I guess the moral is to always do RCs seriously, but the fact is I usually do. It also bothers me that I could read the book with little effort. At least it’s better than no RC at all.
Can anyone offer advice that can help me get it right the next time?
I am really mad and also really angry at myself. I do lots of RC during the day. In more than 4 dreams when i did an RC My fingers looked normal. I want a reliable RC!
The text reality check is pretty reliable in my experience. The nose plugging one I hear is very reliable.
When doing reality checks it’s advisable to raise your level of awareness because if the reality check doesn’t work maybe you’ll pick up on something else.
The key is what you expect, I imagine. In my one and only LD I executed three kinds of RC’s and they resulted in the the exact types of failures I was expecting:
So when you do a RC, become aware of the way the RC is supposed to fail. By the way, I haven’t done a RC in my dreams since the my first LD :-((((, that’s really annoying. I even meditated about lucid dreaming and read about hypnagogic hallucinations in my dreams, but it never occurred to me to do a RC again.
Anyway, good luck with your LDing and persist.
-NL
How many RT’S a day would you say is necessary for the technique to be effective? I’ve been doing RT’s for a long time, and it seems to me that you can never do too many. What do you all think?
I merged this into the big RC topic 
Hi, I have read somewhere that the recomended is 12 but I honestly think there is no safe number to follow from experience. The best way to implement RTs or RCs is to only do them when U see a dreamsign or something odd that happens. A shortcut to remember to do RCs in the dream is using the WBTB method, U wake up then stay up for a few minutes writing down a mantra or sentence like " I will remember to check my watch and realise I’m dreaming" a few times. I’ve had a lucid dream after I did that but U will need to focus on Ur intent when U are writing it.
IMJ
From experience I can say that 20 is optimal.
Why ? I am doing them reasonless and it does not ties me in anything. While something werid happes or not, point is to ask yourself: “Am I dreaming?” You have to think that you are dreaming or not, question reality of world around you. Reasonless staring at hands will make you to stare at them in dream. But not to realize that you’re dreaming.
I can also say that RC’s works best when used with Autosuggestion and MILD.
My biggest problem is the motivation to ask myself “Am I dreaming?”
Too often in waking life, I don’t remember to perform my RCs, or when I do it’s very quick and without thinking, or I feel “I’ll never do it in a dream.” I know it’s not true, but that’s the way my brain thinks. What sort of things could MOTIVATE me towards RCing more often, more regularly and at more appropriate times?
I learned something quite valuable… RCs don’t work the same way for everyone. I, for example, RC every once in a while, while others can RC many times a day, every day.
I tried to be like that, and I found it tiresome. My suggestion for you is - RC whenever something feels odd, or when you see, hear, touch, taste, smell something different. I learned that DILDs only depend on your state of mind. Or at least that’s what works for me.
Sometimes, even if nothing surreal happens, I realize I am dreaming. My advice is, do not stress yourself too much with RCs.
Oh, and another thing: Learn to believe you can do that kind of stuff. Half the work is believing on what you can do.
I’m pretty sure that’s where all my Lucid Dreams come from, or simply from my mind working out “Wait, that’s not right…”
I’ve never RC’s in my dream (Well, I have while lucid, but to no avail) but all my dreams come from logical thinking. Thanks for the advice, I’ll still RC but like you said, won’t REALLY worry about them too much.
i hope my constant repeating of RCs during the day will make me do it during my dreams because i never find my dreams weird while having them…(and they are!!!) and then whan i wake up i cant belive i thought it was just a normal granny with TWO HEADS!!! 
what can i do to bring some logical thinking in my dreams??? 
Exactly the same for me, I dream weird things but can never understand that i’m dreaming, I think the best thing to do is always assume that you’re dreaming, and do RC:s, so you’ll eventually understand it. I’m practising every day by now 
The one RC that never fails is to check a digital clock (and for some reason, there’s ALWAYS one handy, no matter where I am). I look, look away, then look back. In my dreams, it ALWAYS changes around, sometimes to unintelligible characters.
I’ve gotten into a habit of checking for them whenever I suspect I’m dreaming, and often during the day, just to reinforce the habit.
The Rev
Yeah, suspect reality. Always ask yourself, is this a dream? and do LOADS of reality checks. I always used to forget them, but I do over 30 a day now, I’d say. At least 15.
Then hopefully I’ll do some in my dreams! And I’ll get lucid!
YER!
hello you all… it si good to be (partially back)…
so i havent had any LDs yet but i am making progress…
i am in a dream last night and it is about me and some other people passing through a portal and coming to “another world” (as i called it in my deam)… so i wasnt sure if it was another world or not so i thought " lets do a nose RC and make sure" (the problem is i wasnt doing it to see if it was a dream but if we entered this “another world”, dream never even crossed my mind!!!) so i did a nose RC and i could breathe!!!
so i thought ok guys this is another world, lets go on…
WTF??? so i really dont know what to think of it… not once in my dream did i think abot anything weird or that it might be a dream… i am happy though i did a RC in my dream , but hey, it is not going to work if i think the RC has totally diferent function!!
so nw what?? did it ever happen to you???
Haha that’s kind of funny.
I don’t know what you should do, maybe try moving on to other techniques. (WBTB + WILD is a must try)
I don’t get it. If you did RC, and it succeed, AND it didn’t made you lucid, it may mean that you don’t usually think “Am I dreaming ?” while doing a RC.
Eventually, dream needed just some kind of check and random thing that showed up on yur mind was was a RC. If it was like that, it’d be a single incident, nothing to worry about.