Thread: Asking yourself how you know that you are awake instead of whether or not you are dreaming...?

One common practice while trying to get lucid dreams is to develop a critical thinking and ask yourself whether or not you are dreaming - but let's face it, sometimes we just know with absolute certainty that we are indeed awake, for example if we have stayed awake and active for several hours and if everything has felt completely solid and logical that whole time, and in such cases it can feel a bit fruitless to ask yourself if you are dreaming, because you know that you you aren't dreaming at that point.
So I was wondering, wouldn't it sometimes be a better idea to ask yourself what it is that makes you sure that you are awake?
For example, instead of asking yourself "is this a dream?", maybe a question like "why do I know that I am awake right now?" would be more effective?

Yes, I’ve wondered that as well. In some of my past lucid dreams, I tried to get a feel for what the dream world was like, and then immediately compare it to waking life once I woke up to try and find any major differences. The thing is though, they often feel exactly the same! I haven’t yet been able to find any one thing that can say for certain if you are in waking life or not.

I have this same problem. I can want to scrutinise things but deep down I just know I'm awake. The problem is this attitude really does flow over into my dreams as well. Yours does sound like a good question to ask. It's forcing that confidence of being awake to explain itself when it probably can't.

for example if we have stayed awake and active for several hours

I wonder if this is the key to it. I was trying to think of my recent past several times throughout the day as an RC check recently, though I seem to have gotten lazy with it. I remember one dream ages ago where I was walking home after being on the bus and then realised I had absolutely no memories of being on the bus or what I was doing before that. This was enough to make me lucid; the fact there was no past. I don't know if dreams usually make up a past or simply don't have one?

Yes. Why ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" when you know for a fact you are wide awake every time, before you've even finished asking the question?

No, I don't think so, because in a dream you will always be able to find some piece of evidence that suggests you are awake. On the other hand, while you're awake, you should never see any real evidence that you are dreaming. So I think it's better to assume you're in a dream and look for evidence that you are in a dream. For example, if you're in a dream and you ask yourself, "where is the evidence that I'm awake?" you might do one RC, have that pass, and that would be evidence that you are awake. On the other hand, if in the same situation you ask yourself "where is the evidence that I'm dreaming?" you would do the one RC, have that pass, and then go on to your other RCs until one fails, and that would be the evidence that you are dreaming. You wouldn't be able to stop until either all of your RCs pass or one fails.

sometimes we just know with absolute certainty that we are indeed awake, for example if we have stayed awake and active for several hours and if everything has felt completely solid and logical that whole time, and in such cases it can feel a bit fruitless to ask yourself if you are dreaming, because you know that you you aren't dreaming at that point.

But that's an example of doing an RC. You don't "just know" that you're awake, you look back in your memories, realize that you've been awake and active for several hours doing logical things, and that's how you know you're not dreaming. Even if you don't explicitly ask yourself "am I dreaming", you're still answering the question.

Originally Posted by Laurelindo

One common practice while trying to get lucid dreams is to develop a critical thinking and ask yourself whether or not you are dreaming - but let's face it, sometimes we just know with absolute certainty that we are indeed awake, for example if we have stayed awake and active for several hours and if everything has felt completely solid and logical that whole time, and in such cases it can feel a bit fruitless to ask yourself if you are dreaming, because you know that you you aren't dreaming at that point.
So I was wondering, wouldn't it sometimes be a better idea to ask yourself what it is that makes you sure that you are awake?
For example, instead of asking yourself "is this a dream?", maybe a question like "why do I know that I am awake right now?" would be more effective?

It's interesting, but I think it's a bad idea.

So many times I was 100% sure that I'm awake. Until I RCed.

And when in a dream, we don't find anything strange. That's because our daytime memory is not "on". So you would rationalize to yourself anything as normal, as we do everytime in a dream.

IMO, asking yourself if in a dream, or better yet, telling yourself that you are in a dream and then testing that is the way to go. And even after your RC confirms that you are awake, you should never acknowledge it. You should never tell yourself "oh, ok, I'm awake". That thought should just be skipped and RC should be followed by mantra "next time I'm dreaming, I realize I'm dreaming".

This is the way I'm going forward with my RCs:

Half the time I RC I precede it with the question, "Am I dreaming?" I've noticed that I often say to myself in dreams, "I'm not dreaming so there's no point in RCing" so to counter that problem half the time I'm gonna preceded an RC with, "I need to practise RCs. I'll do a mindful RC to establish the habit and expect a surprise one day". Obviously it will be very important to do that RC very mindfully.

Originally Posted by Bobblehat

Yes. Why ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" when you know for a fact you are wide awake every time, before you've even finished asking the question?

I believe this is happening because of this^^^:

Originally Posted by Bobblehat

Half the time I RC I precede it with the question, "Am I dreaming?" I've noticed that I often say to myself in dreams, "I'm not dreaming so there's no point in RCing" so to counter that problem half the time I'm gonna preceded an RC with, "I need to practise RCs. I'll do a mindful RC to establish the habit and expect a surprise one day". Obviously it will be very important to do that RC very mindfully.

You can feel 100% awake in your waking live, but also in your dream. The only way to "realize" is to make sure that you RC. In order to RC, however, you have to believe, that you are dreaming. Always. In walking life, and in a dream as well.

If you don't believe that you are dreaming while IWL, then that same notion will be happening in your dream. You will not believe that you are dreaming. You will not get an urge to RC, and even if you do, your RC may fail you. Your thumb will not go through your palm, and you will not be able to breathe through pinched nose. Because dreams are made out of our beliefs.

And yes, ok, RCs don't make us lucid, awareness does. So even if awareness gives us an urge to RC, if we don't believe we are dreaming, then we will convince ourselves that we are not.

Rather than just asking myself, I try to perform a physical reality check as well. After asking, I try to push my finger through my hand, or breathe through my nose while I pinch it. It is performing these activities in dream that will confirm to you that you're dreaming and enable you to become lucid.