Reality Check Passed?

So, last night in my dream, I began to notice some pretty crazy stuff like light shows in my school. I remember thinking to myself, "I should do a reality check to make sure I'm not in a dream,". I pinched my nose and tried to breath in through my nose. I couldn't breathe. What happened? I thought that the nose-pinch RC was pretty much fool proof.

It usually is. If you've been doing the nose pinch reality check during the day at all, your brain might be generating the "reality" results of your check. There are a few ways you can fix this, but the one I use is to believe completely that I am in a dream. I get excited (but not too much! You don't want to snap out of it) about what I'll do next. I'll be thinking about all these dream qualities I can do, and the test will prove that I can. So I won't be focusing completely on the sensations of my hands or my nose, because then my brain will produce real results. I'll devote maybe half my attention elsewhere, and then realize that hey, I'm breathing through my nose.

You might want to do more than one reality check. Cycle through as many as you can. If you're in a dream already and you didn't WILD or DEILD or some sort of waking transition, reality checks really only come second to that burst of awareness where you realize, "I'm dreaming!" I've read stories on here about people who are told to do a reality check inside a non-lucid dream, and even when the results show they're dreaming, they don't gain awareness in the dream.

A good way to reality check is to be completely critical of your surroundings and of the logic that brought you there. In a dream, unrealistic things often seem completely logical, even expected. It's only until you wake up that you realize something was strange. Perhaps use the Sporadic Awareness Technique during the day. Ask yourself why there's a light show in your school. Is it normal? What are the reasons behind it? Are those reasons normal? Can you think of your school back in "real life"?

Good luck. :)

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Originally Posted by sanctum

It usually is. If you've been doing the nose pinch reality check during the day at all, your brain might be generating the "reality" results of your check. There are a few ways you can fix this, but the one I use is to believe completely that I am in a dream. I get excited (but not too much! You don't want to snap out of it) about what I'll do next. I'll be thinking about all these dream qualities I can do, and the test will prove that I can. So I won't be focusing completely on the sensations of my hands or my nose, because then my brain will produce real results. I'll devote maybe half my attention elsewhere, and then realize that hey, I'm breathing through my nose.

You might want to do more than one reality check. Cycle through as many as you can. If you're in a dream already and you didn't WILD or DEILD or some sort of waking transition, reality checks really only come second to that burst of awareness where you realize, "I'm dreaming!" I've read stories on here about people who are told to do a reality check inside a non-lucid dream, and even when the results show they're dreaming, they don't gain awareness in the dream.

A good way to reality check is to be completely critical of your surroundings and of the logic that brought you there. In a dream, unrealistic things often seem completely logical, even expected. It's only until you wake up that you realize something was strange. Perhaps use the Sporadic Awareness Technique during the day. Ask yourself why there's a light show in your school. Is it normal? What are the reasons behind it? Are those reasons normal? Can you think of your school back in "real life"?

Good luck. :)

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Thanks. I'm now doing reality checks during the day while observing my surroundings (looking at something intently, feeling something, etc). Hopefully in my dreams, I'll be too preoccupied with observing my surroundings so my brain won't automatically generate a passing reality check.

I have gone with the gravity check RC exclusively for over 10 years now. If I can jump too high I know I'm dreaming. Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by xspectrum

So, last night in my dream, I began to notice some pretty crazy stuff like light shows in my school. I remember thinking to myself, "I should do a reality check to make sure I'm not in a dream,". I pinched my nose and tried to breath in through my nose. I couldn't breathe. What happened? I thought that the nose-pinch RC was pretty much fool proof.

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Oh I hate that, and I sympathize completely. I have a dream sign that always fails me. I have never ever ever seen a tornado in real life, but I dream about them all the time. So when I dream about one, I'll do a reality check (like finger through palm), and it fails, so I think "THIS time it's really a tornado, cool." Then I wake up pissed. But the finger through palm check never fails in my other dreams, just the damnable tornado dreams. I have, however, had other reality checks fail here and there, so I came up with one that worked with me so often, that I always use it. And it helps me lock in my lucidity if the LD is weak or fading. I look into a mirror.

You just made me decide that I am going to do the mirror thing instead of the finger thing next time I have a tornado dream. So find a check that gives you more success. We can so beat this. Good luck!