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...