How effective are reality checks?

Sooooo.... Ive been away. If I dont practice, I loose it. Lucid dreaming takes a lot of discipline for me. The best I ever got was like 1/week. I was never into RCs but it makes sense to get into the habit.

So Ive been wondering is the effort worth it? I got an android app that gives me notifications to do RCs but sometimes it seems like a chore to have to think about it. Im like yeah yeah I know im not dreaming but I'll do the dang RC anyway or sometimes Ill just remember to practice all day awareness which can be fun on its own.

I just wonder if this is actually counter productive. Perhaps I am doing too many in a day? Maybe its like nothing nothing nothing Then BAM the best lucid dream evar!

Its just been so long. About a year... and then it was only occassionally triggered because I was having SP and I learned that SP is not evil but amazing!

Or is there a technique to trigger SP I wonder? HMMM.

Well Im just rambling I suppose but input would be great. Thanks! :D

Most of my lucid dreams, around 90% of them, have all been caused by RCs. The other 10% are WILDs, although in a WILD I also do an RC sometimes throughout the dream.

How effective are they? I'd say very effective, but only if you do them right, and if you train yourself to do them in a certain way so it transfers into the dream state.

Example: I'll do a RC whenever I do X, whenever I go to Y, whenever I see Z, etc. etc. I hope you get the picture.

As far as SP goes, try this: http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/jakobs...hnique-118963/

Jakob

Honestly the only reality check I ever use is the nose-plug.

I do it once every morning when I wake up and if for some reason it strikes me, I do it during the day.

Usually it's actually in a dream that I realize something is weird and THEN do the reality check.

Well I guess its pretty effective. Ill have to give it more time. Its just hard to remember at first. And thanks for the link !

For the love of god, don't do the finger through the hand RC. This is for anyone.
Most unreliable pos RC out there. Stick to nose plugging, that'll work better.

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Originally Posted by Zeff

For the love of god, don't do the finger through the hand RC. This is for anyone.
Most unreliable pos RC out there. Stick to nose plugging, that'll work better.

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I never do the nose plugging RC, because I hate the feeling of my nose being blocked, and then I get the urge to throw up.

As far as the finger-through-hand RC, I agree that it is an absolute POS. For me it works only maybe 1 out of 5 times.

For me personally, the best RC is the digital watch RC.

I don't do any of the traditional RCs. Instead I make my own RCs based on seeing things or experiencing events that I find common to my dreams. If it shows up in quite a few dreams it becomes something I recognize easily and it works better as a personal RC.

For me, schools and the color blue tend to be the most obvious signs so when I encounter either one I make a mental note of my surroundings and/or touch the object that seems overly familiar.

Do what works for you. That's what most of this site is for, to help you recognize what works for your own habits.

Okay, so people reality check. What made them reality check is the real question you should make BluePhoenix.
Reality checks are the 2nd part of a "epiphany" that occur to the individual when he's dreaming. This can happen in a mechanical way "must do a reality check" or through a suspicious moment or "spike" of awareness "hm, wonder if I'm dreaming".

Do not worry about which reality check you do. Yes, there are some that are better than the others because their "power" lies on your ability to recall to do them. As melanieb said above, she uses reality checks related to things/events common in her dreams. This actually empowers the action a lot, because she's using association (which is one of the most efficient way to create a mnemonic, aka an aid to remember something).

So maybe you're not falling because you're choosing the wrong reality checks. Don't focus on them (you can also do a different one each time) because it's not the action who counts, it's the intention of recognizing (and making sure!) that you're dreaming. If you happen to do 500 Rc's a day just because your alarm says so, you're probably doing it in a mechanical way. Stop 1 minute and see your surroundings, try to detect something wrong about the scenario.

Remember that reality checks are the way to, not the end of :)

Gravity checks have worked for me for a very long time. In waking life they (jumping) can be weird looking so I do them in private. In dreams , when I do get to 'jump' the lucidity is immediate.

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Originally Posted by BluePhoenix

Im like yeah yeah I know im not dreaming but I'll do the dang RC anyway

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This will most likely be counter-productive. If you do end up seeing your phone and doing an RC in a dream with that attitude, you'll likely think the exact same thing, it won't work and the dream will just continue. If you feel like it's a chore, try setting the notifications to go off less often, or if you can remember on your own, just try and do them when you see a dream sign or something weird happens, like the other posters have been saying. IMO it's important to really question your surroundings, but it still doesn't have to take you much longer than 10-20 seconds.