Am I doing Reality Checks right?

[lomba15]

Okay, well this is how I do them, I have 2 types of reality checks. 1 is the "long" type and the other is the "Short" type. Btw I call them Dream Checks, so ill be referring to them as dream checks from now on. Every 30 mins I will do the Long type, How I do it is like this... First I will ask am I dreaming, getting myself situated. Then I ask where am I? Look around and find out where I am, then say it to myself (Like, "I am in my room.") Then I close my eyes for a second and open them asking where I am again. Next I move on to the question, "How did I get here?" Ill back track about 1-2 hours and briefly go through how I got to this place, wherever I am. (Usually takes about 10-20 seconds). Next I'll ask, "Does everything look legit?" Look around at all details and see if it does. Next I ask, "Can I alter anything in my environment?" With this ill just look around imagining stuff happening like lines on the walls and windows breaking, colors changing... ext... After all of these I start to preform my physical tasks, With the long version I do the Look at palm and see if anything changes, Finger through palm, plug nose and breath, digital clock, and scar test and that's the long version. That one is every half hour. For the short version I do this whenever I think about a dream test before the 30 mins is up. Like if i did a long one at 6:00 and I say to myself is it time to do a dream test at 6:15 ill do a short version. The short one is just asking "where am I?" And then asking "Is everything legit?" Then I do the Finger through palm, nose plug and scar dream checks, nothing too big. The long version takes about a minute if not more and the short version takes like 30 seconds if not more. So am I doing reality checks right? I have no idea, what are your opinions?

[Ekyu]

Looks like ur doing it right, that's quite a lot of things u do! Normally i just do the nose pinch since that works best for me, but this should do it aswell. Seems like lucid dreaming is quite a lot on your mind and sounds like ur really motivated, don't think it will take that long to have your first lucid dream! Here is some more information: Reality Checks - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

[Rothgar]

What you are doing is fine, but may be overkill. A 5 second nose pinch is likely just as affective (if you seriously perform it), and you wont get tired of it. That said maybe what you are doing is more like sporatic awareness testing which is good, too. But I just do the quick test myself.

[isthisit]

You are doing it right, yep! Rothgar... a 5 second nosepinch may not help if you don't do all the awareness stuff too. Then you'll simply nosepinch in the dream, without really thinking about it and not recognise you are dreaming.

[mdspencer68]

I basically do the same things, except trying to see if I can mentally change my environment. But I thought reality checks should be spontaneous, not planned according to a schedule. Oh, and by the way, what's the scar test? I don't recall reading about that one.

[Rothgar]

I agree you need to be serious in your RC...it cannot be rote. But once you've had a bunch if LDs, you do not need much time. I like to assume it will fail and then am surprised that I am in reality. But this only works if you've experienced how real dreams can seem.