Dream Characters Are Trying to Tip Me Off

As my dream recall has gotten better I've started to notice many things that characters in my dreams are doing that are like huge beacons to me that I'm dreaming - at least they would be if my awareness in dreams was anything like it is awake.

For example, in a dream not too long ago my mother was trying to get me to look at the clock repeatedly and I was just thinking "Daylight savings? What?" Last night a friend of mine showed up in two different dreams, each time wearing orange. As if that wasn't enough, in the second dream I mistakenly observed "Whoa, you were in my dream last night and you were wearing orange, that's crazy!" and then she turned the left side of her head to me and suddenly had really elaborate patterns painted on her face. (I woke up pretty soon after that.)

I've been pretty consistent with affirmations, reality checks etc. during the day but does anyone have any advice on how to stop being so clueless in dreams when characters give me signs like that which should be blatantly obvious? I'm trying very hard not to become frustrated with myself here...

Actually probe reality whilst reality checking?

I'v always been opposed to mindless RCs in an attempt to form something habitual. The whole point of an RC, after all, is to build awareness so that lucids become much more likely. If you're doing it right, you won't even need to RC, you'll just figure out you're dreaming from that extra bit of awareness. It's even better if your dreams are presenting you with exploitable opportunities, bu,t without that awareness, it's not going to help as much as it could.

I really like what you said but I wouldn't call my reality checks completely mindless. I try to lift things by looking at them, in conversations with many people I make sure it makes sense that they're all in the same place, I think about what I've been doing for the past half hour, but my problem is these things only occur to me while awake. My dreaming mind, however, takes things that should be complete red flags and passes them off as completely normal. I am unsure why there is that division there but I will definitely remember what you told me, thank you

Well, active RCing is a bit more than performing one or two actions. The more thought you put into them, the more you observe your state of mind, your state of being, and the world around you, all from a detached standpoint, the better off you are.

And I wouldn't call what you're doing completely mindless, either. It was just a sweeping generalization made to help prove a point. =)