Got my dream signs ... Now What ??!!$~#

So after 4 months of recording dreams i have discovered that a massive majority all take place in my local area (the various streets and surrounding area that I live in) Sometimes the places look a bit different in the dream but they are either representations of places i go through every day or they are good replicas. The last 7 dreams have all taken place either in my actual road or in the parks / area where I live.

So now I have identified my dominant dream sign, im not sure how best to utilize it into my daytime work for maximum effect during dreams. Ive never become lucid via a dream sign before, its always by spotting oddities within the dream that gets me lucid

I want to get dream sign recognition correct right from the start :-/

At the moment, my reality check during the day goes like this ....

I ask myself (approximately every hour) 'Am i dreaming' I then nose plug and then ask 'where have i just been' who am i with and what am i doing' I then spend a few minutes pondering before studying the environment, followed by closing my eyes and listening to internal & external sounds and then follow this with the sense of touch, I cycle this for about 10 mins then perform another nose plug. (This reality check is inspired by R-Cars technique)

Would it be an advantage that during this reality check i add in a mantra of 'Next time I am in X Street, i will do a reality check'

What is the best way to utilize dream signs such as mine above. Im able to visit these streets everyday in real life.

It would help if you guys could suggest some type of mantra that may help

Also, what do you think of my reality check above?

Thanks guys (and girls)
Ezzo

Hey there,

An interesting question. In all the years I've been lucid dreaming, I feel I still don't have a good grasp on how dream signs work. I have dream signs that always make me lucid and some that never do. I have dream signs that show up almost every night and some that only show up once in a blue moon.

Over time, I've come to believe that the underlying mechanism is one of association. Certain dream signs work because I associate them predominantly with dreams.

A light switch not working. Not managing to get dressed properly. A certain house from my childhood. These things immediately remind me of dreams. When I encounter them in my dreams, they never fail to make me lucid. Other dream signs show up exclusively in my dreams as well, but because they trigger different associations, they never make me lucid. An example is pets I used to have. Although they are long dead and cannot appear in my waking life, they will not make me lucid in my dreams, because they don't remind me of dreams, but rather trigger feelings of affection and caring.

So my hypothesis is that, if you could strengthen your mind's/memory's association between the dream sign and the concept of dreams, you'd increase your chance of the dream sign working.

Doing that is tricky though. In my experience changing associations is difficult, requires trial and error, and is often a lengthy and unpredictable process. I tend to take a moment during my meditation sessions right before going to sleep to go over all my various dream signs, and acknowledge that these can and likely will show up in my dreams. Adding them to reality checks, like you do, could be another way.

However, I believe there's also good news. Failing to recognize a dream sign might still contribute to making you lucid, because it will still trigger a dream association (even if its only a weak one). In itself it may not be strong enough to trigger lucidity, but with enough of these weak associations during the course of your sleep, you may find yourself spontaneously going lucid. To use a metaphor, they're giving your mind lots of weak little jolts during your sleep, until all these little jolts finally causes your mind to realize something is going on and becomes lucid.

So simply knowing all your dream signs and acknowledging them will give you an overall better understanding of your dreams, and increase your dream awareness indirectly.

As for your reality check. It sounds very effective. It also sounds very intense. I think I'd swiftly get burned out if I had to spend fifteen minutes doing reality checks every hour. I applaud your determination :)

-Redrivertears-