I know this sounds like a stupid question, but I just thought I'd ask.

After doing a reality check in waking life (not in a dream), what are you supposed to think? I imagine that if you do a reality check, find out everything's normal, and think "I'm not dreaming", then said situation will reappear in a dream, thus inhibiting any chance of a lucid dream.

I did have the pleasure of doing a reality check in a dream (I looked at my iPod screen which said "Are you dreaming?" then I looked at the time which said it was "9:00 SP", but I didn't become lucid).

I changed my reality check to one that is less disorienting than seeing a bright screen in your dream. I have a large freckle on my left hand, shaped like a teardrop, between my middle and ring finger. When my iPod alarm goes off, every hour, I stare at my left hand, expecting the freckle to not be there. When I see it, I will it to vanish.

Back to my original question: If the freckle is still there and doesn't vanish when I will it to, do I think "I'm not dreaming"? Will that transfer into my dream and destroy any chance of an LD?

Sorry for the long post.