Thread: How often should i perform reality checks, would you suggest?

I don't think the frequency of RC's really matters so much as the thoroughness. I only do 10 or 15 reality checks throughout the day (I probably could be doing twice as many, but I'm lazy). But when I do RC, I'm sure to be extremely thorough with it. (Very centric on Quality over Quantity.) If memory/mental RCing was failing you, then you probably were not being thorough enough.

I think that you should just try and RC as often as you think of it, without considering a precise time increment. Just do it as often as you feel is necessary. Use the watch too. Just be wary of RCing too much. You can start to wear yourself out and then when you RC you kind of BS it.

As often as you remember, but try for every hour.

If you do it more often than that you may just end up generating obsessive tension that would actually be detrimental to LDing.

Every 10 to 15 minutes is just stupid. If you did every RC properly (taking 30-60 seconds on each one) you'll burn out by the end of the first day.

I agree with JadeGreen that the quality of awareness is what matters more.

You can't just glance at your watch every 15 minutes, you have to stop and really observe your surroundings and state of mind, otherwise you're not training self-awareness (which is actually why we RC during the day).

This is the best DILD guide, check it out to find out more about using RCs for self-awareness: http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/Puffins-DILD-Guide

Yes just as mentioned above, it’s the quality that’s important, not the quantity.

I’ve often become lucid from doing just one or two good RC’s the previous day -- I would take maybe 30 seconds to a minute to really question whether I was dreaming or not (RC’s don’t have to be this long, but I just do them sometimes as they’re great for elevating self-awareness). In contrast, I’ve done RC’s obsessively throughout the day (like every 10 minutes) which never resulted in lucidity, not even dreams about RC’ing!

But yes, the ultimate point of the RC, as Ctharlhie mentioned, is to train your self-awareness. It is therefore important to exclude thoughts which would impinge upon the self-awareness you are trying to create in that moment. If you became reasonably self-aware in a dream, you would have a strong chance of knowing you’re dreaming, so it’s important to not allow anything during the moment of an RC to diminish your sense of self (including distracting thoughts, the environment etc.).

RC'ing whenever you think of it is fine, as long as it's not too taxing. Also the digital watch RC sounds good (I do it myself), but again it’s really the self-awareness you put behind it which makes you lucid -- the actual “check” can consist of anything.

Well every 15 min is too much. Try like 5 times a day. Make it fun. If you think you can still do more, try more. Keep it fun.
You gotta do it sencerely, and so if you get bored of it, you might not be able to really give it much focus.

Just a note: When you RC, be critical. What I mean is that you RC to know if you're in a dream or not. So when you RC, you need to, like, know and get used to the fact that you really might be in a dream, no matter what you might be thinking or where you believe you are. I've had so many dreams where I RC thinking "I'm so sure I'm awake" then it turns out I'm dreaming. Trust me you'll experience this sooner or later, which will make you really understand that you actually may be dreaming any time, even now.

So RC trains your criticality. You should do them while thinking "No matter what I think now, I might be in a dream. Even if I'm sure I'm not, I might be wrong because I am wrong about where I think I am almost every time in my dreams"
In other words, you can't trust yourself when 'feeling' if you're in reality or not. Do the RC thinking "OK 50/50 I'm dreaming or not"
OK so this helps because it develops your critical mindset. Why you need it? Well, simply put, it'll make you question reality more and better. For example, if you see a dragon, and you have a strong critical mindset, then you are more likely to be suspicious about your reality. After all, this critical mindset does make you not trust your typical voice in your head that might try to explain it as "circus being in town" or whatever. As you might know, that voice tries hard to explain things based on a given that you're in reality. When you stop believing that you're surely in reality at any given moment (or in other words, develop a critical mindset), you open up the new option to your voice in your head, the option that you might be in a dream.

I think there's nothing wrong with few high quantity RC days here and there. It's important to always mix things up, avoid routine, the brain seems to really love paying attention to new things and is really, really good at ignoring things it's seen a million times before (personal opinion).

And I think you must do an RC any time you think of doing one. Do not stifle the urge to check your reality. If you start suppressing RCs in the waking state, you'll start skipping them in the dream state, and miss LDs. Treasure and nurture those moments where you start thinking of your state & dreaming, those are lucid moments!

Every RC though also must receive your full attention.

But do not confuse critical reflection moments with RCs, I think some people mix them together. A RC should be quick, even when you give it your full attention. Critical reflection, though, deserves a good 30 seconds to a minute at least. A handful of those a day is probably all you need. But as for RCs, I'd say at *least* once an hour, and I'd probably prefer more, if you're not doing any form of continuous mindfulness (yes it's hard to start, but once you do it's hard to stop, and is really enjoyable....it's the best approach IMO).

In a none-false awakening situation, I think the critical mindset out-weighs RCs. If I do RC's in dreams, it's by far the most common situation that it happens because I start out with thinking 'Something is off' (or specific variations thereof). In fact I have a hard time recalling a single instance where I did an RC in a regular dream just out of habit.

In false awakenings though the situation is the direct opposit. Here's the habit of RC's really useful.

^^ As you point out, it is important to consider the context. In my opinion, the critical reflection moment is almost always only fully performed in the waking state (in this sense it's like Sageous's RRC, which is itself sort of a critical reflection moment focused on the self). The purpose of the critical reflection moment is to *cultivate* the awareness that leads to the "aha!" moment in dreams that leads to lucidity (perhaps via the RC). If you *already* suspect you're in a dream, you should not start a long, drawn-out mental process, but rather (if you're not sure yet) perform a quick RC and get on with the lucid dream. IMO.

FAs are tricky because they may come with no "aha!" insight at all (luckily mine do sometimes).

Good points. With that in mind I think it would be better say, that it's the degree of suspicion that should justify the lenghts to go to, to confirm that you are dreaming.
I don't know exactly when, but about 6 months ago, the need for RCs (except for FA), went away. It wasn't a complet absense of need from one night to the next, but rather a steady decline. I just started to 'know' more and more often without having to confirm. Which in itself should make you think that I can get lucid at will, but that's not the case - conditions still need to align; steady sleep schedule, the right amount of tired, WBTB etc.

^^ It would be interesting to do a thorough study of my DJ, but I'd guess most of my LDs involved already being already mostly sure I was dreaming, and no RC was involved, or it was just a formality. Maybe 3/4. A small handful were "RC reflex", (like, "WTF!? RC <by reflex>! Oh!") with no prior hunch. I don't think I've ever had a "random RC" LD with no prior "hunch" or "WTF!?" moment. The rest are sort of in-between: maybe 75% sure I'm dreaming, but I teeter there on the edge of disbelief for a while, off-balance, unsure, and in those cases the RC help me to cement lucidity in those cases. Those are the times were performing in-dream "critical reflection" is all but impossible since my mind is already quite a-twitter with conflicting "realities" and is desperately searching for close, calm harbor, fast! Maybe long-term meditation would help eliminate these "adrift in the ocean of WTF-is-my-state?" cases.

My day work these days is basically like a long, continuous game of "Hot or not?" but for dreaming . To produce that "dream?" hunch in the dream state.