Thread: Reality Checks

Hi, I'm wondering if any experienced LDers can please help me with this...

Last night during a nonlucid dream I found myself in a public toilet (dreamsign) and I performed the nose pinch test. I could breathe. I was very surprised by this and thought "hmmm, this means I'm dreaming. It's really hard to believe but that's what it means". I then looked around and thought "I suppose it does feel like it could be a dream". I looked at my hands and they both appeared 100% normal right down to the detail on my wedding rings. I then tried to push my arm through a wall but only felt the hardness and solidness of the wall.

I think the dream must have ended at this point because I don't remember anything after that.

I am going to have to stop looking at my hands or trying to put my arm through an object as part of my daily RCs. These checks have become completely useless. They used to work, but these days my dreams are so realistic and vivid that even when a RC fails (such as the nose pinch did) I have a hard job believing I'm dreaming.

If anyone has any suggestions on a better "back-up RC" please let me know. The problem is that I don't feel confident enough to trust that I'm dreaming based on one RC (nose pinch). The whole point to being lucid is to do things you can't do in real life (eg jump off buildings, say certain things to your boss etc). I need to be 100% sure it's a dream before I go doing crazy things.

So what RCs do you experienced LDers do as part of your daily reality checking? I just need ONE OTHER RC that is as reliable as the nose pinch test. Any suggestions?

TIA

Originally Posted by DreamQueen

Hi, I'm wondering if any experienced LDers can please help me with this...

Last night during a nonlucid dream I found myself in a public toilet (dreamsign) and I performed the nose pinch test. I could breathe. I was very surprised by this and thought "hmmm, this means I'm dreaming. It's really hard to believe but that's what it means". I then looked around and thought "I suppose it does feel like it could be a dream". I looked at my hands and they both appeared 100% normal right down to the detail on my wedding rings. I then tried to push my arm through a wall but only felt the hardness and solidness of the wall.

I think the dream must have ended at this point because I don't remember anything after that.

I am going to have to stop looking at my hands or trying to put my arm through an object as part of my daily RCs. These checks have become completely useless. They used to work, but these days my dreams are so realistic and vivid that even when a RC fails (such as the nose pinch did) I have a hard job believing I'm dreaming.

If anyone has any suggestions on a better "back-up RC" please let me know. The problem is that I don't feel confident enough to trust that I'm dreaming based on one RC (nose pinch). The whole point to being lucid is to do things you can't do in real life (eg jump off buildings, say certain things to your boss etc). I need to be 100% sure it's a dream before I go doing crazy things.

So what RCs do you experienced LDers do as part of your daily reality checking? I just need ONE OTHER RC that is as reliable as the nose pinch test. Any suggestions?

TIA

One that always works for me is the letter test. I look at any writing, look away then look back. If the letters have changed I know I'm in a dream. I know how you feel about some dreams being too real down to the point that they look and behave exactly like reality. That's why when I do my letter test I'm sometimes flabbergasted to realize,
"this is a dream".

Thanks Lobster.

I have seen text change in my dream and I've heard that people use this as a RC. But what do you find is the best way to get access to some text in your dream? If I make this my back-up RC I expect that I'll just spend the rest of the dream looking for some text.

Well, someone told me the more you LD, harder it is to do LD because it becomes more and more real.

Here Dreamqueen, I saved this to my computer when i was on a website a while back. Its alot of reality checks.

Spoiler for reality checks:

1. Look at your watch or a clock
When you are lucid dreaming, the part of your brain in charge of recognizing numbers and letters is still asleep. Therefore, when you check the time, it should be completely random. For example, if you look at your watch and it is "12:25" one minute and "2:33" the next, you know you are dreaming (barring the unlikely situation that your digital watch is extremely broke) and are therefore lucid.

2. Attempt to Write
When you write, it may be illegible or irregular, and the letters may change, as with above. If you notice this occuring, it is a strong hint that you may be dreaming (barring the unlikely situation that somebody spiked your drink.)

3. Attempt to Read
If you have problems reading text, or read it once and when you try again it is different, then you are most likely dreaming.

4. Try to find unusual things in the world
These are things to look out for in a dream. If, for example, the sky is green and an alien is attacking you, it is most certainly a dream. Of course, it is likely to be far more subtle than this, as is normal. When you pick up on this, try to alter your surroundings in some way - a usually easy dream trick. If you can, then you are either dreaming or magic.

5. Turning the lights on/off
When you are dreaming, one of the things some people are unable to do is adjust the light level of the settings you are in. If you try to turn the light switch on/off and nothing happens then there are 2 possibilities:
a. You are dreaming
b. The light bulb burnt out the light switch doesn't work for some reason.

6. Trying something considered "impossible"
Another method to test whether you are in a dream or not is to try somthing that you know is impossible in the waking life. Commonly used examples of this are: Putting your finger through your palm, crossing over through a mirror, levitating, etc. I suggest you don't try something like flying out your window or such... just to be on the safe side.

7. Memory Check
This is a method where you are "asking" yourself what have happened during the day, or fortunately a dream. Try to think back as far as you can. When you perform this method, you will be aware if you have experienced anything illogical during the day, and you may have blank periods.

8. Mirror Check
Go to a mirror, and look at your self carefully. Ask yourself if you are dreaming. If you are dreaming, it is likely that you will notice something strange in the mirror. For instance, you could have a different hair style from normal, or different clothes. You may also look like you are a completely different person. In this case, you are definitely dreaming.

9. Self Observation Test
This method is similar to the one above. It is a very flexible reality check in that it takes little time, and you could do it almost all the time. Look at your self. If you have, for instance, 7 fingers on one hand, you are dreaming. You could also look at your clothes. If they look strange, you are probably dreaming.

10. Look for a dream sign
Dream signs are common things which frequently appear in your dreams. For example, in some dreams, you may always see a certain person (possibly a dream guide) and the same features (for example, something which does not exist in reality but is always there in your dreams).

11. The Breathing Test
This is a nice all-rounder. Pinch your nose closed and keep breathing. Try not to think about your breathing while doing it, just leave your usual 'automatic' breathing to do its work. If you can breathe whilst pinching your nose, you're dreaming.

12. Emotion Analysis
Pay close attention to how you feel. If something causes you to react a certain way - frustration, bliss, laughter, it would be a good time to determine your state. The feelings generated by a dream are the same as in the waking world, so it's certainly something to keep in check.

13. Constant physical awareness
If you're like me, you've been trained to be rushing from point A to point B throughout life. Life is a race and there's no sense of *now*. Learning to control the feeling of now is a great way to pick up on the inconsistencies. I find that learning to consciously acknowledge the little things in life is a great way to regenerate the mind's analytical ability. I find this to be very strong in kids. They will pick up on something insignificant to my mind, and point it out to me, and I will be thinking 'How did you notice that?' It's that sense of 'now', the feeling that there's not some light waiting at the end of a tunnel, but that the tunnel is filled with light.

14. Use a computer
This one's easy. Do your normal startup programs run? Can you access the internet okay? Go to a lucid dreaming site every day you wake up - it might help trigger an LD. It is basically the same idea as the reading test.

15. Look outside
Is the weather normal for the season? For example, if it's snowing in the middle of summer you're either dreaming or the ice age has started.

16. Look at the layout of your room
Is it how you left it when you went to sleep? If you have shelves, is everything on the shelves that you expected to?

17. Look/use a telephone
Are all the numbers in order? Press the "call" button. Do you get the "boooo" tone?

18. Jump
Just do it. Do you float? Do you stay in the air for an abnormal amount of time? Do you hear the "thump" sound when you land?

19. Say something
Sometimes your voice can be distorted in a dream, so just say something to yourself quietly.

20. Throw something
Throw a soft ball or something of the sort. Does it act as you would expect it to? Does it stay up or move abnormally far?

21. Look at your pets
If you have pets, just look at them. Do they look normal? Stroke them. Do they feel as they should?

22. Talk to somebody
Talk to somebody, preferably somebody you know quite well. Do they act as they usually act?

23. Play some music
Are the lyrics as they should be? Are the singers the people that should be singing? Does it sound distorted?

24. Smell something
Quite easy. Spray something or some perfume or just smell something - does it smell as expected?

Originally Posted by DreamingDragon

Well, someone told me the more you LD, harder it is to do LD because it becomes more and more real.

This is true. My dreams are so real nowadays it's ridiculous. The other day something very weird happened IRL. I was round at a friend's house and I picked up a book. The author was a mutual friend of ours! I never knew he'd written a book. I then opened it and started reading the first page and it was about a character in a life threatening situation and suddenly the character suspects he's dreaming and pinches himself! I kept doing RCs like crazy but even though they were passing I wondered if I was actually dreaming because it was such a classic "dreamlike" occurence. The fact is, my dreams are no less real than RL and have fooled me before. It's very hard for me to tell the difference sometimes.

Hey thanks everyone. I'm sure I'll figure something out from all the ideas you've suggested!

Wow Shift, even though it WAS a lot of text that was a really good explanation though. I never realized that upon doing RC's I would often just perform them real quick and go on with life.

Valuable info, thanks!

Originally Posted by DreamQueen

Thanks Lobster.

I have seen text change in my dream and I've heard that people use this as a RC. But what do you find is the best way to get access to some text in your dream? If I make this my back-up RC I expect that I'll just spend the rest of the dream looking for some text.

For me text is always somewhere. Signs, license plates, anything lying around anywhere, the side of a bus, a can and there's usually something in the pocket. If you look around you right now I dare say that it would be hard for you not to find something with text on it.

My primary RC is jumping. If I float down I know I'm in a dream. That never fails but then neither does the letter test.

The reality check that usually works for me is the one where you stick your finger through your hand.

No RC is reliable. Why? Because they all have the potential to fail. Personally, when I RC

Spoiler for I go through this process and these questions::

Originally Posted by Shift

Am I dreaming? Where am I? How did I get here? Do I remember getting here? What am I doing here? Is what I am doing a normal, logical thing? Do things make sense? Do I know the people around me? Should the people around me be around me, or are they from my past or deceased? What am I wearing? Did I put those clothes on today? Do I remember waking up today? If I am in a dream, these reality checks will work. My finger will go through my palm *finger goes through palm* That digital clock is going to be messed up *digital clock is screwy* My hands will have strange fingers *hand looks messed up*. Aha, I must be dreaming!

Not all in that particular order. But that's pretty much the thought process you want to be going through. Is it a dream? Why. Is it not a dream? Why isn't it?

Pause now to ask yourself the following question: "Am I dreaming or awake, right now?" Be serious. Really try to answer the question to the best of your ability and be ready to justify your answer.

Originally Posted by Shift

Well, the purpose of the reality check is to 'state test' or to really look around you anazlyze whether or not it is a dream and what evidence supports your conclusion. It's not JUST looking at your hands or plugging you nose, though a lot of people make it just that.

A good reality check method: stop everything you are doing, don't allow yourself to get distracted. Look around you. Where are you? Should you be there? Do you remember getting there? Does the situation make sense? Do you remember dressing yourself in the clothes that you are wearing? Seriously question these things, and on top of that look at the number of fingers you have, or the digital time, or whatever.

Also, make sure that you always do a couple of different reality checks, since they sometimes will not work. Look at your hand, look away, look back. No change? Try to breath with your nose plugged (I don't like that RC there are too many reasons the mind can come up with for why it should fail). Try to push your finger through your palm. Feeling resistance? Tell yourself, "Well, if this is a dream, my hand doesn't even exist! so my finger should pop through!" If it still doesn't work, look at a digital clock. Note the time, look away, and look back. Did it change? Etc. I usually do the finger through palm, look at my hands, and read some text or a digital clock every time that I RC.

Originally Posted by Shift

Alright, the reality checks that you are talking about are really a way to remain conscious and focused on yourself and your reality. What you do, is any time something "dreamlike" occurs, you should conduct a reality check. That is, anything that will draw your attention to the fact that you are in a dream.

For me, I like to try to push my finger through my palm, look at the number of fingers on my hands (usually +/-5 in a dream), look at my clothes and try to remember if I put them on or not, try to place where I am in the world (works if you are in an unfamiliar place), etc. Some people like to pinch their nose and breathe, because in RL you wouldn't be able to, but in a dream you can.

Now, you should do a few of these reality checks any time something seems strange, or unusual, or something isn't working the way it should, or you have any sort of deja vu, or any time you can't understand what someone is doing and then suddenly realize it (this happens a lot in my dreams).

Every time that you do a reality check you should pause everything else that you are doing, look around yourself, and try to figure out why it is that you aren't in a dream. Do a few of the reality checks (sometimes they don't work, so always do more than one). Do this as often as those strange circumstances (or whatever serve as a stimulus for a RC) occur. There is no set amount you should do in a day.

Once you get in the habit of doing this, you will start being more and more aware. In dreams, you will be more conscious and question whether or not you are in a dream more often and strongly. Then, you'll think that maybe it is a dream afterall, and you'll do a couple of RCs. If your finger goes right through your hand, or if you are wearing clothes you've never seen before, or whatever, you should realize it is a dream and become fully conscious.

The other thing that you are talking about is either hypnagogic imagery, or the WILD technique. Keep practicing! You'll get better. There are tutorials all over the site!

Hope that helped!

I realize that's a huge block of text and I apologize. But I felt no reason to retype those things I feel are so critical.

So anyway, remember: A reality check isn't just a repetitive physical action. And also, when doing a reality check you should be seriously considering the fact that everything around you is not real. Push your finger into your hand with the expectation that it will come out the other side. Visualize this happening. Count your fingers expecting there to be extras, or look at your hands anticipating that they will be deformed.

Reality checks are supposed to work simply based on these expectations. Apparently, the ones involving digital clocks work because of the actual state of your brain during the dream (I'm not sure this is true, but I have read many times that it's because of what parts of your mind are not active during dreams). So this one I feel is the most reliable if you're getting into the habit of reality checking. Also, I read someone's advice on here that has served me well, which was that when using text or a digital clock always look, look away, look, look away, look, look away at least three times. Sometimes they'll be stable, but when you get into this habit while expecting them to change you will usually be lucid by the third try.

Anyway, you probably didn't need all that. To answer your question, I find pushing my finger into my palm, counting my fingers, and reading text or a digital clock are all physical reality checks that work very very well. Looking down at your body, pausing and asking yourself what you were just doing and where you are going and where you are and who is around you, asking yourself what you were doing earlier that morning, the date, if you remember waking up since you last went to sleep are all good mental reality checks. You get lucky with the physical, you always get results with the mental.

Also make sure to read the REALITY CHECK TUTORIAL!