why the nose RC works

the hold-your-nose-and-try-to-breathe RC has been working great for me lately and this morning I had an epiphany when I was in between dreams...I was thinking that maybe the nose RC works so well because when you're in the dream you imagine that you are holding your nose and then you breathe in. I think at this moment you do take a breath in RL but obviously you aren't holding your nose in RL and so you get the effect of holding your nose in the dream while breathing in reality and so in the dream it feels like you can breathe despite holding your nose...i dont know if this is true but it might be

Sounds right to me.

Depends on the depth of the dream.
If you're in a deep solid dream in the middle of the night, I doubt the dream will connect to your conscious self like that. The reason most reality checks work is because in a dream, you don't have independent limitations like in the real world. In the waking state, if you were to decide to walk through a wall, you'd be stopped when you bump into it. In the dream, that independent restriction doesn't exist since it's all in your mind.

I don't even really think your dream body breathes, I think you just feel your real body breathe.

I think that this is the same as the reason that it's called REM sleep.
Some parts of the body isn't affected by SP, because they can do no harm, or because they are needed to keep you alive. For example you need to be able to breate while you sleep, and therefore the lungs isn't paralysed.

As far as i remember, Stephen LaBerge actually succeded in comunicating with people in RL while dreaming, by moving his eyes in an prearranged way.

Last time I did a nose RC in a dream it failed! :shock:

I thought it was pretty obvious, personally. Yes, since you actually breathe with your physical body, a dream nose-closure doesn't change anything and you continue to be able to breathe just fine.

Yeah, thats pretty much what it is, your not holding your nose in real life, but you are in the dream, so air still goes though the nose.

like gh, I thought it was pretty obvious

I can hear myself breathe when I'm under water or holding my breath in a LD