To avoid short dreams do very little in the first couple minutes. Do not turn in circles trying to see everything. Instead, try to use your voice and say, "this is a dream: a few times. Pick one visual thing to look at. Your own hand is the classic. If you can find your hand, try flexing the fingers. This process avoids a sudden overload. After that you can go do more if the dream feels stable.

Reality checks can be looked at different ways. The way I see it is that you simply build a habit of doing RC so often that you will likely do it in dreams also. RC does not have to be the push finger trick. It should be simply asking yourself if this could be a dream, then going about proving to yourself one way or the other. Many easy RCs are not even very physical and will not be noticed. I will click my teeth together. In waking life I feel light impact going down to the roots and the sound travels through the jaw giving it a different sound than things outside my head. In a dream I do not feel the impact correctly. It feels like it might on novo-caine. The sound is just normal out of head sound. With this I can do a quick RC by simply clicking my teeth.