Phrasing your reality check question

**JSAvalo** · 05-12-2015 07:49 AM

Lately I've been having many near-lucid dreams where a lot of weird stuff happens, I acknowledge it's weird, but I never make the connection that it's weird because I'm dreaming. So obviously, my cognition is impaired. One possible solution I've thought of to help rectify that is to change the wording of doing reality checks from "Am I dreaming?" to "Am I lucid?" Why? Because "Am I lucid?" returns the same answer whether I'm awake or asleep. In fact, the answer can never be "no" because by asking the question you attain lucidity. My hope is that when I dream and weird stuff happens, I'll ask myself, "Am I lucid?" and that alone will cause me to be lucid. My fear is that it'll become too subtle, so that I might have a lucid non-lucid dream, whereby I am hyper-aware of my dream surroundings, yet still remain oblivious to the fact I'm dreaming. Anyone else play with different ways to do reality checks? Does one way work better for you than another way? And why do you think it's better?

**Zoth** · 05-12-2015 09:08 AM

The content of the sentence you use doesn't matter as much as the association you want to establish. More specifically, you could use a simple word like "Potato" whenever you find something strange, if it relates to your intent of lucidity. Naturally that words like "Lucidity" convey that intent much better though, but "Am I dreaming" and "I am lucid" doesn't make much difference, the most important thing is having a trigger (yes, just like Pavlov's bells!). Good luck

**sisyphus** · 05-12-2015 02:42 PM

I've recently been on a string of increased DILDs after being almost exclusively on WILD for a couple years. The DILDs almost always start with me thinking:

"If this is a dream, I should be able to..."

And then without completing the sentence with words, I perform a test of dream control, usually telekinetically pulling an object in the environment into my hand. Now to be honest, what's happening is more of a reality check to confirm lucidity rather than to trigger it. Nevertheless, I think the alternate sentence structure may be interesting.

More generally, the idea I'm developing is to use a "What if..." open-ended speculation (an example of counterfactual thinking) instead of a yes-no close-ended question (an example of propositional logic). My hypothesis is that counterfactual thinking may engage different mental faculties than normal logic, so that the action of speculation is less impaired (or at least differently impaired) while dreaming. The "what if..." challenges you to engage in some imagination to create proof of a dream, rather than trying to detect proof. Creating proof may be easier than detecting it.

**Sensei** · 05-12-2015 11:29 PM

I "become" lucid about 1000s of times a day. I look around and think "I am dreaming" and become lucid. When I am dreaming I usually have the exact same things happen, I look around and think "I am dreaming" and am lucid in a dream. There is no question, just a statement of awareness.

**BlackNoise** · 05-13-2015 08:51 PM

When i ask myself if i'm dreaming in reality i try to really ask the question and notice my surroundings, the colors, the shapes, the textures, the movements, the math of it all. otherwise i may ask the same thing in a dream and the question holds no weight. it becomes a mindless routine that doesn't necessarily lead to lucidity.

**Runeword** · 05-20-2015 10:08 AM

I think phrasing a RC is probably not the best method. If you find yourself leaning towards that thought then really you have already asked yourself and there is no need to do it verbally. Just do a couple of "physical" checks at that point. My very favorite is plugging my nose and trying to breathe through it (never lets me down) or pushing a finger through the palm of my hand.