Thread: Can reality checks be just as effective without dream signs?

Originally Posted by LouaiB

I personally like using reflection intention to make my RCs more effective and interesting.

What you do is perform a RC and imagine it worked, and do your usual LD onset stuff like stabilizing and reminding yourself what you want to do, then say to yourself that you want to do a RC, or become lucid, next time you are dreaming.
That makes the RC more exciting. Really try to believe you are inside the dream, even fake it and get that excitement in your belly.
Also it makes the intention stronger, and increases the chance that you will remember your goals and to stabilize next time you LD. Also practice during this saying "I'm dreaming", like add it to your stabilization, so you would keep saying it during the LD. That saved a few of my LD from fading away to NLDs, at least for a few extra minutes!

Also writing down on a piece of paper can really help! Like write down "I will RC next time I'm dreaming", or "I will know I'm dreaming next time I'm dreaming" a few times. That powers the intention. You can do it for RC (like, after you do a RC, or a reflection-intention), or with MILD. I found it very helpful for MILD. Also you can write down what you want to do in your LD, like maybe during a WBTB right before going back to bed. That helps me get excited and powers my intention and helps me remember my goals during a LD too!
These are very beneficial, doing reflection-intention and writing down your intentions, with intention and remembering what to do in a LD, and of course inducing them!

Hope I'm helping

That’s great advice!

Yes usually when I do a reality check, it takes a few attempts to be able to get the high level of self-awareness to actually make it effective. Like I might think “am I dreaming now?” But I might have something else on my mind or just can’t seem to question it with enough curiosity. So I have to try again and really focus until it feels like I’m genuinely asking the question….

So it’s definitely good to have things to make it easier and more interesting. I agree that the reflection/intention really helps things. I actually do this after some of my reality checks. I would simply just think, “well what if this was a dream, what would I do”? And then just pretend it’s a LD for a while. Also, I think it really helps to imagine a time when you became lucid in the past from doing a reality check, despite how certain you were it was reality. And yes having some kinds of goals in mind really helps, not only to make the reality check more effective, I think, but it helps with motivation as well!