Failed to RC in a FA

[Jacen]

I had a False awakening this morning. I woke up and did a reality check and it didn't work. Anyone know why my RCs failed me?

[Whatsnext]

What RC did you do? Some are better than others (for certain people), but none are guaranteed to work all of the time. When I have an FA I've never been disappointed by the close-your-mouth, pinch-your-nose, and try to breath RC.

[Jacen]

I've tried breathing through my pinched nose, looking at my hands and counting my fingers. I would look at my hands then look away and look back at my hands and the number of fingers would change or I would have short/long fingers. But in this FA, all of them failed.

[Whatsnext]

I've tried breathing through my pinched nose, looking at my hands and counting my fingers. I would look at my hands then look away and look back at my hands and the number of fingers would change or I would have short/long fingers. But in this FA, all of them failed. Counting my fingers always failed as an RC, I stopped doing it. What I think you should try is look for a digital clock and read the time twice. If there's no digital clock around, just look for one. I'm always able to find one quickly in a dream when I look for one. I think you will probably just have to try different RCs until you get a set of them that always works.

[Jacen]

Counting my fingers always failed as an RC, I stopped doing it. What I think you should try is look for a digital clock and read the time twice. If there's no digital clock around, just look for one. I'm always able to find one quickly in a dream when I look for one. I think you will probably just have to try different RCs until you get a set of them that always works. I will try something else besides counting my fingers and see if its more successful. It was one of the first RCs I started with so I just stuck onto it lol. Thanks for the replies.

[Maxis]

The nose plug RC is my personal favorite. As long as you do it correctly, it should work. I know everyone says you should have more than one RC but it's really the only one I use. I have, however, failed the RC in dreams and the reason being because, well, I simply wasn't paying attention. My tip of advice is, I simply want to point out that the thing about reality checks is that you can't do them mindlessly. If you simply do the RC and not think about anything else, chances are it's going to fail. Instead, stop what you're doing, look around you for a moment, and wonder if the world you're in is simply a dream. Do the RC, and pay close attention to the results. It's worth staying in that questioning state for a few more seconds afterwards and do another RC, simply to double-check. Wait until you're sure that you're dreaming or awake. RCs won't ever straight-up tell you that you're dreaming or awake, whether you did it because something felt off or because it's what you do when you walk through a door (or in this case, wake up). They'll only confirm the answer for you. To do a reality check efficiently, you need to already be wondering if you're dreaming. And of course, like Whatsnext said, it's always worth branching out of your comfort zone and trying different RCs. He's right in that, some RCs simply don't work for some people. Good luck, mate, and I hope I helped!

[AnotherDreamer]

I had the same problem as you Whatsnext, fingers RC never worked for me. My hands were too damn consistent. I tried the clock RC for awhile, never worked either. The mirror RC worked for awhile, until my dreams started to become more vivid, then it stopped working. The ones I use now are telekinesis RC as my primary one (I'll randomly try to make things move throughout the day just to check) and the flipping the light switch one. The telekinesis one only failed me once that I can remember, and I probably only remember because I checked the light switch right after even though I was almost positive that I was awake. I really like what Maxis said though, great advice I think.

[Jacen]

My tip of advice is, I simply want to point out that the thing about reality checks is that you can't do them mindlessly. If you simply do the RC and not think about anything else, chances are it's going to fail. Instead, stop what you're doing, look around you for a moment, and wonder if the world you're in is simply a dream. Do the RC, and pay close attention to the results. It's worth staying in that questioning state for a few more seconds afterwards and do another RC, simply to double-check. Wait until you're sure that you're dreaming or awake. RCs seems to get me Lucid just fine even though I don't I do it mindlessly for some reason. But then again it could be that I was already questioning reality that leads me to do a Reality Check. Ill do this and see if it helps me become Lucid more.

[Whatsnext]

Great point from Maxis about being mindful of your RCs. What I do is, after I do the RC, I state the RC in my head and the result. For example, I'll pinch my nose and try to breathe, and then in my head I say "I pinched my nose and I was unable to breathe. I am awake."