Hey, what are your favorite Reality Checks? Which ones seem to work best for you? And I mean both inside and outside of dreams.
The counting fingers RC, because it is so much simpler than looking for something to read all the time, or constantly jamming my fingers against a hard surface etc. I always carry my hands with me, so I don’t depend on anything else than myself for this RC.
Hands and digital clock.
Messed up words just ain’tcutting it for me. All the words and numbers in my dreams seem to come out fine. Only the extravagent cost of a toy happened to almost tip me off last night(in my dream) though.
Whats the hands/finger RC?
I rely on holding my nose and trying to breathe as my primary RC since i started getting five-finger hands and clocks that works in my dreams.
I also plug my nose and try to breathe.
anything to do with the time and words and the hand through the wall. and anything out of the orindanry… i think thats it
Nose RC all the way! I remember when that was a ‘new’ RC! I used i to get my first LD infact! 
Works beatifully.
I hold my nose and try to brathe through it. I also count my fingers as a backup, but that failed me once in a dream. Also, I close one eye and look at my nose.
Is there a RC that has yet to fail to work in a dream, like certain to work for everybody?
I myself have had some problems, just last week I turned off 6-8 lights in a large room to get it dark, and all of the switches worked (I didn’t do it as a RC, but still). Reading text has never worked for me as I can read a lot in my dreams without the words changing, not even when I look away. I have yet to try with watches, but I did listen to a CD in one of my dreams, and the display counted correctly every second. I have had 5 fingers in my dreams too, but only once. It did prevent me from gaining lucidity though.
From my experience breathing through closed nose have never failed. Has somebody had any bad experience with this RC?
I suppose backtracking (where am I, why am I here, how did I get here) is a good method too, but as my brain is somewhat non-funtional in my dreams I like the simple RC’s that don’t require a lot of thinking.
That’s interesting that text doesn’t change for some of you. It always does for me.
Often I don’t need to do RC’s at all to know I’m dreaming.
I did the “hold your nose” RC last night in my dream…the first time that I remembered to do a RC while dreaming…but it didn’t work. 
I need a fool proof RC 
lol i so want to see you stick ur finger in your nose and try and brearth in rl lol send me a movie 
The digital clock RC is by far the most effective method for me.
Lol thats funny moogle, so did I… But I woke up right after 
It looks like different RC’s work for different people and there is no “one works for all” solution.
Do y’all think it’s generally better to stick with one kind of RC to make it very habitual or to rotate them to keep it fresh, etc?
I tend to mostly rotate, and sometimes I do lots for a few days and sometimes I slack for a while… none of my LD’s have come from any standard RC … they’ve only been triggered by just kind of going… hmmm, wow, this IS a dream. But very infrequently so far… 
Peace,
Sruthan
I’ve been doing digital readout RC’s for a while now and they work just fine for me. I’ve never had to go with another, though I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try various methods.
I think that changing your reality checks from time-to-time is advisable.
I noticed that after a while, my subconscious gets ‘used’ to certain checks and avoids the issue! An example of what I mean: Earlier this year, I had to scrap my car and can’t afford a new one , so I thought ‘everytime I see myself driving a car, I will do a reality check’.
So next time I am driving a car in my dream, my mind fobs me off by making up the story that I am driving a friends car, and of course I believed it! Never mind…
I realised that as I was typing this I am getting reality checks and dreamsigns a bit confused, but I thought it is still quite relevant.
Must go to bed soon…v. tired…
Here’s one I use when in a void - no pictures or dream body. In this case you can’t count fingers, look at clocks or anything cos there’s nothing to see. I know I’m asleep cos I can’t sense my breathing or anything to do with my physical body.
The Hold You Nose RC (yes it deserves a title) is by far the best RC I’ve ever done/seen. Text sometimes doesn’t change for me. Once, I was in an LD and hitting things to change the text. The text stayed the same but the funny thing was the font the text was written in changed every time I flicked it with my finger. Although I don’t remember the text.