Thread: Am I doing these Reality Checks Right?

I've been concentrating on reality checks recently, and need a few assurances that this is the correct way to do them.

Usually, I sit down on my bed (if I'm in my room, otherwise I'll sit down wherever else I am), keeping my eyes open most of the time, I in a sense "zoom into" my environment, and become aware of it, aware of the fact that I can interact with any of it at any time; I look around and try to look at and notice little things that I don't normally pay attention to; once I'm more aware of my surroundings, I ask myself a few questions: "Who am I? When was I born? What's the date? What time is it?" After this, I begin to cycle through my senses, concentrating my awareness on each of them; first sight (checking to see if anything looks odd or out of place), then sound (checking for any strange sounds), then smell, then taste, and then touch. I try to keep an awareness of my body after that, and do a couple more cycles of the senses.

After this, once I feel I'm nearing about 10 minutes into the check, I do a couple of standard reality checks; finger-through-palm, breathe through nose, and checking the clock on my phone to see if it distorts, each time asking myself "Am I dreaming?" Once I'm satisfied that about ten minutes have passed, I've finished the reality check.

I also occasionally randomly do the little standard reality checks throughout the day; I haven't kept to a schedule of doing them over the past couple of days and have faltered a little, but I think I should get back into the rhythm of it tonight.

Thanks!
- Liolar

Yeah, that seems about right. Do the same process while doing the reality checks throughout the day, but just very briefly rather than ten minutes

That's an awfully long time to be doing a reality check. Seems rather unnecessary, why not just 3-4 short, typical reality checks? If you do them mindfully, they will make a difference. The ten minute RC sounds like temporarily increasing self-awareness, which is great. If you feel that short RCs are not enough, try maintaining a higher sense of self-awareness throughout the day. What you're doing isn't wrong, just seems rather overkill for a mere reality check.

Originally Posted by mimihigurashi

That's an awfully long time to be doing a reality check. Seems rather unnecessary, why not just 3-4 short, typical reality checks? If you do them mindfully, they will make a difference. The ten minute RC sounds like temporarily increasing self-awareness, which is great. If you feel that short RCs are not enough, try maintaining a higher sense of self-awareness throughout the day. What you're doing isn't wrong, just seems rather overkill for a mere reality check.

Spending less time on it with the same results sounds good to me! XD I suppose after a while I do find myself saying "Hm, yeah, is ten minutes up yet?" Maybe if I just do it to a point where I'm satisfied I've asked what needs to be asked. I'll try and do it a little quicker and keep up a general sense of awareness from now on.

Originally Posted by Liolar

Spending less time on it with the same results sounds good to me! XD I suppose after a while I do find myself saying "Hm, yeah, is ten minutes up yet?" Maybe if I just do it to a point where I'm satisfied I've asked what needs to be asked. I'll try and do it a little quicker and keep up a general sense of awareness from now on.

Yes, I think that's definitely what you should do. There's no need for you to spend that long a time on any reality check. In fact, in my experience I have to have RCs that last seconds, I run the risk of thinking too much.

Now, don't get me wrong. Self-awareness is key. But I wouldn't use something this long as a RC. If you find yourself getting bored and ready to stop, then in the dream your less likely to realize you're dreaming. It seems dangerous to me.

What tends to help me when
i do a reality check is to quickly
examine something that im not
too familiar with. things that
the dream mind will fill in the
gaps and would make look
weird. and keep them short. but
do a lot of them to begin with.

Self-awareness RC's are some of the best to really perform on a regular basis as they are basically fullproof, unlike some of the more common ones (plugging nose, finger through palm, etc.)

How many times do you do your ten minute reality check during the day? Also, you could consider this: how much awareness does it take you to normally become lucid in a dream? If all you really need to do is "become aware" in the sense of becoming aware of where you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it, you may not need to spend ten minutes on one reality check. For the sake of saving time, I would suggest becoming aware of yourself and your environment, ask whether or not it is possible you are dreaming, and then perform a reality check. And if you find that you become lucid often without RCing, then (as Chewnie is suggesting) you may have found a better way to RC.