Last night I realized my first dream sign while in a dream and from there did a reality check but it didn't quite work.

In the dream I was on a wooden walkway near a lake with some friends when we noticed that the waves were 30 feet high. I, in the dream, realized that this happens a lot in my dreams and figured it must be a dream sign. I reality checked by counting my fingers on each hand, but i wasn't looking at my hands and was distracted by what was happening around me so I figured that I just counted my fingers wrong and that I was awake. Soon after, the dream ended.

Any advice on how to stop this from happening again? I usually do 3 RCs, I count my fingers, try to poke my finger through my hand, and I pinch my nose and try to breathe in, but for some reason I only did one of those in the dream.