Thread: Need help. Reality check with expectation effect problem?

I'm understand the general idea of reality checks but, I'm confused with one thing. We experience the phenomenon of the expectation effect in dreams. I had a dream with high awareness where I realize it was a dream and did my reality check of counting my fingers. I counted 10 finger, then i decided that i want to confirm its a dream so i shifted my expectation to counting 12 fingers and i did. Since then, i do my reality check with the expectation of counting 12 fingers. Am I setting myself for failure by using the expectation effect or should this make the reality check more consistent? I haven't had a lucid dream since I modified my reality check but I am a beginner. Any help is much appreciated.