Thread: does reality checks throughout the day really help?

Ive tried doing that, but i dont think that it has helped me in any way. I did reality checks all day for about 2 weeks and it didnt help me at all, i dont think that it effected my dream recall or my ability to use the RCs in my dreams.

But different things work for different people.

I find reality checks kind of supplementary to recognizing dream signs as a DILD induction technique, and I usually only think to do reality checks during a dream anyway to solidify awareness of my state.

I find that thinking about lucid dreaming and wanting to have a lucid dream makes me more likely to have lucid dreams from any method. But it took me many months of wanting to "control my dreams" to have my first dreamsign recognition ever, which, disappointingly, woke me up.

Reality checks are really just a means to condition you to reflexive ask yourself, to an odd scenario, "Hey, that's odd" = "Am I dreaming?". It does not necessarily immediately equate lucidity as much as it does introduce you to noticing differences between dreaming and being awake. It also keeps your focus on dreams and the idea of lucid dreaming, more or less.

The important next step would be to notice dream sings in your dreams. Try and pick apart the most common things you see in the dreams. For me, I typically see trains. Thus, whenever I see a train, I usually think I am dreaming and take it from there.

They are all steps to gradual habituation and the ability to differentiate dreaming states from waking states.

What do you think...?
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the nose plug reality check is the only way i have ever had an LD. plugging my nose randomly while awake has seeped into my dreams and i become aware very frequently, now i just need to work on staying lucid and control. this might just be beginners luck though (had my first LD at the beginning of december, and now i have one almost every other night, 2008 should be fun)

never worked for me. only once, using the nose pinch one. but most of all i jus use them to confirm i'm dreaming, i use the finger through hand, pulling the finger to elongate, and the nose pinch.

Reality checks are a necessity. They are like Dream Journalling. They are base skills for lots of other induction techniques.

However...the only work if you play them like this. Reality checks are an "answer" to the "am I dreaming" question.

1. You spot something unusual/unreal
2. You ask yourself. "Could this be a dream?" (notice...its a question. You don't know...so you are asking...)
3. The reality check gives you your answer.

If everythings normal...well you answered your question. If not...you also answered your question. Don't make your mind up before the test.

and the reason you dont find success is very simple: you don't have effective RCing habits.

You aren't effectively spotting dreamsigns...and your not observant enough of your environment....

maybe check this out....

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=34263

Reality checks only work if you do them habitually and with effort


edit: I am also guilty of not spotting my dreamsigns/not being observant; but as far as I know...thats how to DILD ^

Originally Posted by lonestarx

I dont understand how though because when you manage to do RC'S during the day it doesnt work so what do you say then? I have no idea what to say Because I tried saying No Im not dreaming, doing RC'S whenever I see something odd. But it doesnt work for me. I been doing this for the past week, my dreamrecall is getting better but I yet to have a DILD. Please give me some tips to help me

Depends on the person. I do them all the time and they've only ever helped once, but it's no real effort to do it so I keep going anyway.

I think what makes the difference between the rcs passing to your dreams is the amount of rcs, you did that day. If i do between 40-50+ in one day, i'm almost 100% sure to have an ld, but you can only do this about 3 days in a role because then it stops. i read on some thread here that another member ket changing the tecniques so that one technique didnt simply become habit. so thats how rcs work for me.

It worked for me when I was starting out. Now I just do need to.

Originally Posted by telaranrhiod walker

I think what makes the difference between the rcs passing to your dreams is the amount of rcs, you did that day. If i do between 40-50+ in one day, i'm almost 100% sure to have an ld, but you can only do this about 3 days in a role because then it stops. i read on some thread here that another member ket changing the tecniques so that one technique didnt simply become habit. so thats how rcs work for me.

I did one every like 5 mins for all of yesterday. And no LD yet.

Originally Posted by moe007

I did one every like 5 mins for all of yesterday. And no LD yet.

Today i wrote RC on my wrist. And everytime i saw it i did a RC. I ended up doing about 500 today? I dont know but i did ALOT.

Ill post tomorrow to see if it effected my dreaming.

That worked for me to end a dryspell, I hope it works for you.

I suspect RC's are a long term investment. According to LaBerge's books, it takes an average of 4-5 weeks to have your first LD, but after "a number of months", you could be having a lucid dream every night! I've been doing them 10-20 times a day since early November and after about 7wks straight of that, had a spontaneous lucid dream. Before that, I was doing them about 5 times a day in the winter, and maybe one a week the rest of the year, and was averaging about one spontaneous LD every other month. I'm gonna try to keep up the current level through the whole year and see if my LD rate increases.

I also agree with James, they are the basis for success with other techniques.

Also, I think it's possible to do too many. It exhausts one's attention and makes it more difficult to do them seriously. It's better if they're cued by something you resolve to notice during the day. This also increases attention to your surroundings and helps with prospective memory. I'm kinda absent minded, so one of my favorite times to do an RC is when I have a brain fart! Either way I win. Either I improve my memory (which helps with MILD), or I end up doing more RCs (which helps with MILD)!

I'll echo some of the above - for me, frequent reality checks seem to be a two edged sword. On the down side, doing frequent reality checks throughout the day conditions my mind to expect everything to check out (since it always does when I'm not dreaming). I might try to focus and really consider the "am I dreaming?" question, but doing it 10+ times a day you can't help but grow into the habit of expecting a certain outcome. Then when the reality check time comes in a dream (and it will, once you're accustomed to doing them frequently), your mind is already predisposed to find a 'normal' result, and jump through twisted logic hoops in order to convince itself that you're not dreaming.

On the positive side, frequent reality checks (especially in connection with dream signs) keep the notion of dream vs. reality in my mind, making it more likely that I'll consider the possibility when a dreamsign pops up in my dreams.

In the end, I keep doing reality checks and think they increase my chances for DILDs, but also understand that my mind will likely find a 'normal' outcome to these RCs within a dream because it's become conditioned to expect them from all the normal waking hour results.

Originally Posted by moe007

Ive tried doing that, but i dont think that it has helped me in any way. I did reality checks all day for about 2 weeks and it didnt help me at all, i dont think that it effected my dream recall or my ability to use the RCs in my dreams.

But different things work for different people.

actually it helps for me, because it makes me think about LD during the day, and sorta helps me have lucid dreams when i sleep, not sure if that makes sense but eh what ever