Reality check works, but fails to induce lucidity

[JamesLD]

has this ever happened to anyone else? what i mean is sometimes in a dream i will plug my nose and ill be able to breath but i get really confused and am not sure exactly what it means or if its even out of the ordinary, and i end up not becoming lucid.

[gameover]

I always do that reality check and I am always confused when I use it in a dream. It feels so strange that I always doubt that I've done it right. Usually I have to repeat it three times before I even believe it. Just don't let it discourage you. Just keep up the reality checks during the day and it'll work. It's such a strange feeling and so easy to just go on with your dream without ever really "waking up".

[JamesLD]

it doesnt really discourage me, it can just be annoying sometimes when i wake up and remember a dream where i did it and ill be like "damn! i was so close to lucidity!" oh well another night, another chance to become lucid!

[White horse]

Maybe you need to find another reality check. You can also tell yourself what you are going to do when the RC showsout that you are in the dreamworld. My RC is now like: okey the RC shows I'm in the real world, but what should I have done now when it showed that I'm in the dream world. This way you can train yourself to be more creative. Ps. nice avatar James, I saw that figure in some -Third Eye - movies. Very nice!

[The Silver Bullet]

Yeah one time I DEILDed but I was unsure if I was in a dream even after I passed my nose RC. I had to try to poke my finger through my hand and that sorta passed so I realized I was dreaming.

[TheConqueror89]

That happened to me as well sometimes. But i usually combine 2 reality checks to make sure i'm dreaming, so if one fails, the other one in the sequence usually does it's job well.

[TomSnare]

I don't think the nose pinching technique has ever failed me. Except once, but I think I was on my way to waking up when it did. I usually am so fascinated by my RC's working in dreams that even though I am lucid, I keep doing them over and over again, and trying different ones. I've found that just thinking about being in the dream helps me maintain quite well. For instance I would run thoughts through my head like "I am dreaming, that tree on that hill looks a little weird over there because I am dreaming. I'm gonna stare at it until it looks normal, because I can, because I'm dreaming..." etc. Best of luck to you, at least you're getting some lucidity!

[Andywarski]

I find it hilarious when I wake up and I relized I was doing reality checks in my dream yet didn't get lucid... it's funny how during our waking lives we strive to do these things in our dream life yet sometimes they don't work.

[Kordan]

The point of doing a reality check is to question reality!!! If reality checks become methodical and rote, then we need to find another reality check, one that will really make us question whether or not we are dreaming, or we can keep our reality check, but also observe the workd around us when we do them to see if anything is strange or dreamlike. This active questioning of reality is vital to RC's!

[gameover]

The point of doing a reality check is to question reality!!! If reality checks become methodical and rote, then we need to find another reality check, one that will really make us question whether or not we are dreaming, or we can keep our reality check, but also observe the workd around us when we do them to see if anything is strange or dreamlike. This active questioning of reality is vital to RC's! A good point. If you're just going through the motions then you're not going to get the most out of reality checks. It might help some but it won't raise your overall awareness. When I do a reality check I always stop and seriously ask if Im dreaming.

[JamesLD]

yeah i realized my problem was i had got to much in the habit of just plugging my nose that i pretty much forgot to question whether i was dreaming or not and would just plug my nose. but thats all changed now, ive gotten more in the habit of questioning reality