Asking myself if i'm dreaming doesn't work. HELP!

I will explain my dream in detail in hopes of getting some advide of some sort. In any way. My dream last night we me in my hometown city of seattle. The whole city was gathered in downtown to watch a movie on a screen the size of a skyscraper. The sky was like the sky in the movie "the matrix" scorched with thunderstorms and shit. Then in the distance i huge flash up in the sky went off. Exactly the look of a atom bomb. Of course it was. My friend ryan and I started to run behind these huge concrete pillars to escape vaporization. We would watch huddled as people around us were getting vaporized. Every few seconds the pillars would crumble and we would have to run to another one. (like the bombs effect wouldnt kill us while we were running from pillar to pillar). After this point its kinda hard to distinguish a timeline of which things happend when. but i'll do my best. I went to my brothers house, who in reality lives a few miles away from me. But when i got to his house I was suddenly in my dorm building at Arizona State University. i remember being sooo happy he lived, and I eagerly asked him if mom and dad were okay. He told my that dad died in the hospital from lung cancer(he doesn't even smoke) and mom died in the blast. (they live really close to us both in reality) At that point I felt a undescribible sadness.... My brother told me that it was some kinda terrorist group behind the bombing because he saw it on the news. I then had felt as if i had lost the will to live. In the dream, as in reality, I am really working hard to finish school to get into my career. I lost all ambition for that and to live. I think I decided to go on a solo suicide mission to the middle east to take out whoever was responsible for what happend. I was driving down the highway then and everything looked like it was hit by an atom bomb all around me. Thinnking of the situation and my dead parents I just started to freak out and say, " this has to be a dream" over and over again. And I remember the feeling right after that, after i didn't wake up, that this was real. Then my dad somehow appeared in his normal 57 year-old body but explained he came back to chat with me, but he was 16 years old. I don't remember much of the conversations we had which sucks, but I do remember before he exited my dream I broke down crying to him and saying I didn't have enough time with him. (as I sort of feel I haven't got to know my dad enough as I should, we have a weird relationship) In reality I was in a hotel with five 3 friends sleeping. In the dream I then started to visit each one of them and ask them if their parents were okay. all didn't know except my best friend who told me that his parents had died. I could feel the undescribible sorrow in me at that moment i couldn't control it because i was thinking about my parents. I remember wondering how he was taking the death of his parents so well. He gave some speech like they are in a better place. And then I awoke.

The few times I can try and ask myself if i'm dreaming it never works. Not that this dream is normal but 99% of it is at least possible. I usually have real life situation dreams which make it hard for me to realize its a dream. Please help!

Welcome, Mr. Cow. :)

Please note: one of our forum rules is that you do not post duplicate threads in multiple forums -- I have removed the duplicate thread you created in the Newbie Zone.

As far as your question goes, yes, it can be difficult. As I have stated in other threads, I seem to find it easier to become lucid in dreams that seem more "normal" rather than ones where I encounter flying pigs or something. You just need to get in the habit of questioning reality any time you suspect that something is "not quite right". It may take a lot of practice before this carries over into your dreams, but you can learn to do it.

I have a couple suggestions. Along with asking yourself if you're dreaming, it's also helpful to try a more physical/concrete reality check. For example, one of the most popular ones is pinching your nose shut and attempting to breathe. If you can still breathe, you are dreaming. Another one is attempting to stick your finger from one hand through the palm of your other hand. Another slightly less reliable one is finding a lightswitch and turning it on/off. If it doesn't work, you're probably dreaming, and should perform one of the other reality checks to be sure. Device failure in general is a fairly common dream sign.

Now as for asking yourself if you're dreaming... while simply pondering that question is sometimes sufficient to make you lucid, often you need to go a bit more in depth. Here are some examples of questions you should ask yourself:
Where am I? Have I been here before?
Is there anything that's supposed to be here that is missing?
Is there anything or anybody here that is not supposed to be here? (for example, a dead relative, or a toilet in the middle of your kitchen)
Who am I with? Do I know these people, and are they normally here when I'm doing what I'm doing?
What time is it right now? Which day of the week is this?
You get the idea. Step back and evaluate just now much sense your current situation makes, if any. I call this an "awareness check."

Good luck, and don't get discouraged. We all miss obvious dream signs sometimes.