Fakse Awakening

[Yumnش]

Hello I'm new and I've come here with a question for anyone to answer as I did not understand what I did wrong in this dream. I'll explain now, on the 2/9/13 I had a dream in I had 2 - 3 false awakenings. The first time I was completely un aware that I was dreaming and it was blurry but to me I found that to be usual due to the fact that I have horrible vision. When I got up I was headed toward another direction and then woke up from the same spot in my Fathers room. This time I was surprise I was dreaming that however it look completely the same as it did before in my 1st false awakening so I got up again and this time I walk over to the bathroom , turn on the lights and wash my hands and decided to look in the mirror. Everything seem normal, I could feel the lights shining on me I felt the water running through my hands and my face appeared normal, I question myself " Am I dreaming or awake " I decided to do a Reality check with my hands with the water running through them.

[Yumnش]

I tried to make my finger go through my other hand however it did not went through and it felt real and solid. So after that I believe I was awake I exit the bathroom and when I turn around I woke up from my bed with my head hurting me a lot then everything seem normal my Father was telling me I sleep too much and that's when I finally woke up in waking life. When I did it look exactly as my dream did when I had false awakened in it. So it was nearly impossible for me to tell if I was awake or sleeping. When I did wake up it took me awhile to fully realize it's not a dream. It look and felt so real to me. My questions are why did my dream look exactly as my waking life when I woke up after having them, also why did my Reality check failed to work for me in the dream? It was a very vivid dream and I was fully aware of what was happening. So where did I go wrong with this?

[sisyphus]

You won't catch every dream sign and not every reality check will fail, so don't get too concerned with one missed LD. That said, I have two suggestions: - If you frequently have false awakenings, the absolute best device is a sleep mask. In waking life, it will of course block your vision. So if you "wake" and you can see anything through the mask, you know you must be dreaming. It's an easy and reliable reality check. And it doesn't require any movement, so it also pairs nicely with WILD and DEILD. - I think the finger-through-palm reality check is not so reliable. Nose pinch is the best for any occasion. I like nose pinch first and then counting fingers as a backup.

[Yumnش]

Thanks for the advice , that Reality check has been useful for me in the past to become lucid in dreams however frequently now it takes me a couple of tries for it to work but you are correct it is not that reliable for me anymore. Also I did a couple of typos , I had this false awakening at 2/9/14 not 2013. I'll make sure to pinch my nose in the next one.

[FryingMan]

Another vote for nose pinch -- has never failed for me. Hand check is variable: sometimes the hands are freakishly weird, sometimes just slightly shaped differently and somewhat transparent, but I also do that as it's good to have a backup. Some however consider the mental reality checks the most useful (which do not have simple "yes or no" answers), like, "Why do I think I'm awake? Is this a waking location? Where was I before this and what was I doing? (memory check)". Doing both the physical and mental checks together give you a solid "getting lucid" arsenal. Practice both frequently in waking life, and *really try hard* to convince yourself of your state, don't just think "obviously I'm awake." In fact, never think that even if the reality check "shows that you're awake." What I do instead is think "hmmm....the next time I'm dreaming, I remember to recognize that I'm dreaming" while visualizing a scene from a recent dream. If you haven't yet read LaBerge's Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming, I heartily and strongly encourage you to do so. Also his "A Course In Lucid Dreaming" which you can find floating around the internet, gives step by step practice sessions for everything he talks about in ETWOLD. And enroll in the DVA courses, the instructors are excellent and will help you along and encourage you! Keep it up, it's worth it!

[Yumnش]

You have a point that I should try harder to be aware that I am in a dream besides using RC however the problem with this dream was that it look exactly as it did when I actually woke up after having the false awakening. It would be nearly impossible for me to tell the difference between the dream and waking life because the setting of the room was the same. You do have a point that maybe I should have tried to change it by visualising it in a different way but the dream caught me off gaurd due to me waking up from the same bed in real life. My real question is how can a dream already know what waking life looks like before I wake up to it? That's why I could not tell the difference, hope it doesn't sound like a stupid question.