Thread: My 30-minute lucid dream. It's all reality checks!

Awareness > Reality check - You need both for one to work. Well done on your lucid!

thanks for advice and you made a LD app? coool!!

Arch: Thanks! I often forget that reality checks are about awareness, not going through the motions.

Windhover: I'm making one now, should be ready early January. It's a dream journal that tracks your stats, reminds you to do reality checks, and a few other things. Hopefully you can check it out soon.

Good luck with the app, I have a couple suggestions!

1. Be able to adjust the time intervals between - every two hours, on the hour, every half hour, every 15 minutes, every 10 minutes. (Reason for the short intervals is for times like gaming! Think, when your playing a game your awareness drops dramatically! having a more frequent reminder would encourage to be more aware rather than getting dragged away into the game world, which most of my dreams are based on)
2. Be able to set it between certain hours, for instance between 10am-10pm, so it shuts off automatically at night.

Edit: 3. A random interval setting, having one on a set time gets a bit reppetitive and predictable. Maybe a setting for a random reality check within the hour, every hour or two.

And also some instructions within the app how to do a PROPER reality check, to heighten your awareness, not just check reality. This would help the noobs greatly. I wasted a good month or two carelessly pushing my finger into my palm before i even heard about awareness.

One step ahead of you! Unfortunately there are technical limits on how often I can spam you with notifications on the iPhone, so once every half hour is the maximum.

I'm curious to hear what your take on awareness is and how you changed your reality checks. Feels like something I need to work on personally.

Damn apple. Ah well half hour should be good anyway.
Well instead of just thinking, whenever something strange or out of place happens 'oh, am i dreaming?' *does RC*, I heighten my awareness, stop everything im doing and question myself the best I can, along the lines of - 'Hmm thats strange, could this be a dream? How do I know? *scans around, noticing everything in the enviroment* this whole day could be a dream and i'd be none the wiser.. What was I doing 15 minutes ago, where was i before that? Hmm Im not so sure' *does RC* then another just to be sure*
Thats just an example, though the trick is to be aware throughout the day and not 'daydreaming', noticing when things become dream like, which is hard to maintain for some people including me. So a reality check reminder definetly does help, but should always be taken seriously and not become a chore. Which just gave me a new idea, instead of one select recurring sound, maybe a bunch of different ones? that randomly change, which will make you think '?? what was that sound? instead of, 'oh another reality check again'

I have to disagree with changing the sounds. At the moment I'm using the default iPhone alert sound, and after just 2 days using my app, every time I get an alert (from other apps as well) I instinctively do a RC. So this gave me two ideas. Not sure which one to use.

1. Use the default alert sound to train the brain to associate every alert with doing an RC.
2. Use a custom sound to train the brain to respond to only it (perhaps this would induce a stronger connection to doing an RC).

The best part about all this: you can keep running your RC reminders at night and the sound should prompt you to do a RC in the dream.

It just occurred to me how powerful this association between the sound and the RC can be. I think running the alerts at night could be absolutely killer.

Originally Posted by ntesler

I have to disagree with changing the sounds. At the moment I'm using the default iPhone alert sound, and after just 2 days using my app, every time I get an alert (from other apps as well) I instinctively do a RC. So this gave me two ideas. Not sure which one to use.

1. Use the default alert sound to train the brain to associate every alert with doing an RC.
2. Use a custom sound to train the brain to respond to only it (perhaps this would induce a stronger connection to doing an RC).

The best part about all this: you can keep running your RC reminders at night and the sound should prompt you to do a RC in the dream.

Well, I also have an associated sound from a chime I used to use on my phone, on the hour. Everytime I hear it I know, its an instantaneous response. Though after continuous use of it, it loses its effect somewhat (for me anyway) like, you get into a routine and know what the outcome will be - not dreaming. Having multiple sounds could switch it up a bit.

As for playing it whilst you sleep, I've had no luck with this what so ever. Obviously playing it on the hour is hit and miss for being in REM. Though I used the same sound with an app that notices when you're in REM, then plays it. Still no luck, could just be me though

Well that's likely because, though your brain definitely hears the alert while you're asleep it may not find it's way into the dream in a way you'd recognize (or as you said you're not REM-ing at all so it wouldn't matter). The only thing with an app - which I definitely think is a good idea that could help - is that you become dependent on your phone for the RCs. Learning to associate RCs with your environment works wonders for dreams because in a dream you're going to be somewhere - but in a dream you may not have your phone and if you do it's certainly not running an app!

However, I have found that cell phone's in general have helped me out as in a dream my cell phone never works - ever. I'll go to check my phone for the time (as I often do in real life) and see a black screen. I'll try to turn the phone on (because even if the battery's dead it should turn on for like 1-2 seconds before dying in the real world) and still nothing and instantly I know I'm dreaming. Maybe your app, by forcing you to check it frequently, will have you trying to look at it more in dreams? Either way it's definitely worth trying (and as I programmer and LD-er I give you 2 thumbs up! ).

Originally Posted by DougD720

However, I have found that cell phone's in general have helped me out as in a dream my cell phone never works - ever. I'll go to check my phone for the time (as I often do in real life) and see a black screen. I'll try to turn the phone on (because even if the battery's dead it should turn on for like 1-2 seconds before dying in the real world) and still nothing and instantly I know I'm dreaming. Maybe your app, by forcing you to check it frequently, will have you trying to look at it more in dreams? Either way it's definitely worth trying (and as I programmer and LD-er I give you 2 thumbs up! ).

More personalized RC's definitely seem to be more effective to the user. Congratulations on finding one that works so well for you! I wish I could say the same