Thread: How often are Reality Checks needed?

Hi. Remember that its quality over quantity - make the reality checks really count, once an hour is rule of thumb

ezzolucid has brought up a good point. I try to do them as much as possible, however years ago it did happen that it became such a habit that they were no longer an actual thought process. I got so used to just casually saying "Am I dreaming? ... No." that I actually did this in a dream. It's like when I was taking martial arts. When practicing disarming techniques with a partner the goal is to grab the weapon, or to knock it to the ground. We were taught never to then pick up the weapon for the partner after disarming it. The attacker must always pick up his own weapon because simply picking up the weapon for the attacker during practice has caused people to do it in real life. We are creatures of habit.

So, I'd say do as many as you can, as long as you make them real, and actually put thought into it.

ezzolucid really hit the spot. Also, a way to make them more effective other than really being aware while doing them, is make sure that when you do them they aren't a stressful task and make sure they don't become something you hate doing because you do it a lot or something. That will really help your reality checks pass into your dreams more frequently, it really did for me.

Personally, I don't do them once an hour; I only do a few a day, and my self awareness takes care of the rest. Yet in my dreams I do them all the time.

Yeah that happend to me one time lol it sucked

Also imagining exactly what it would be like if it worked right there, right now. You'd be completely free to do whatever you'd like. I do this and I'm always like " Yiiihh!! This is going to be great! " And yeah like sloth said you should never state after a failed RC that " I'm not dreaming", since it is fairly easy for it to carry into your dreams. Go with: " It will work next time!"
The more you put emotion and concentration into the RCs, the better your DILD becomes. Like when I began my journey I did 80-100 intensely proper RCs a day and I had really high LD rates. The more you want it the better the results.

Would it be better to use an RC that feels more fun and less of a chore, like trying to set my hands on fire by clenching my fist? It sounds like it would be better, but i don't see how it would make me more likely to actually RC in a dream?

I've generally used the two most common RCs but they feel boring to do.

Originally Posted by DARKSYNTAX

Would it be better to use an RC that feels more fun and less of a chore, like trying to set my hands on fire by clenching my fist? It sounds like it would be better, but i don't see how it would make me more likely to actually RC in a dream?

I've generally used the two most common RCs but they feel boring to do.

I guess the only problem with the RC you described ( setting hand on fire ) is that as you get lucid you might only have partial control over the dream. So you might not be able to perform the RC successfully, thus not realizing that you're dreaming. You need dream powers to make it work and you might not have them at the beginning. The nose pinch and finger-count techniques are extremely reliable and require no dream control. Your breathing is the same as the breathing in the dream world, so with the nose pinch RC it is pretty much guaranteed to work since there is nothing blocking your breathing IWL. Just remember why you're doing them in the first place, you're going to get lucid and have a great adventure. You can try searching for the ideas of others or try coming up with new ideas of your own of RCs that require no dream control and that are fun to perform.

Originally Posted by Saizaphod

I guess the only problem with the RC you described ( setting hand on fire ) is that as you get lucid you might only have partial control over the dream. So you might not be able to perform the RC successfully, thus not realizing that you're dreaming. You need dream powers to make it work and you might not have them at the beginning. The nose pinch and finger-count techniques are extremely reliable and require no dream control. Your breathing is the same as the breathing in the dream world, so with the nose pinch RC it is pretty much guaranteed to work since there is nothing blocking your breathing IWL. Just remember why you're doing them in the first place, you're going to get lucid and have a great adventure. You can try searching for the ideas of others or try coming up with new ideas of your own of RCs that require no dream control and that are fun to perform.

Would it then be applicable to do a finger-count RC afterwards? Safe to say that i'm having fun RCing with the flame method. As you said, i did get extremely close to lucidity with a recent dream, i don't really know if that was the RC's fault or not since i don't rember how i started suspecting it.

Originally Posted by DARKSYNTAX

Would it then be applicable to do a finger-count RC afterwards? Safe to say that i'm having fun RCing with the flame method. As you said, i did get extremely close to lucidity with a recent dream, i don't really know if that was the RC's fault or not since i don't rember how i started suspecting it.

Sure, but I'd personally do the finger RC first just to be sure. But if you put great intention into it and really believe(know) that the flame RC will work, then go for it

Originally Posted by Saizaphod

Sure, but I'd personally do the finger RC first just to be sure. But if you put great intention into it and really believe(know) that the flame RC will work, then go for it

I sure will! As an experiment, i feel like the more fun an RC is, the more likely it will cross my mind. So far it's great, i'm trying to make it both fun and trustworthy and i think i got the idea down. Just thinking about what to do with the flame gets me all pumped up

Originally Posted by xSpidy

So I do reality around every hour or two. I was wondering, what is an ideal schedule for them?

Lets say like me you wake up 5 days a week at 5am and sleep in two days a week (and on holidays and days off)

The ideal schedule is 5am - 8am (or however long you can reliably sleep in)

The reason is two fold. Most important is that you will be doing reality checks when your brain is used to being active, and also at the time your dreams are longest and most vivid and intense (just before you wake up / also when you sleep in) This will cause you to do reality checks during your dreams while napping (I recommend you drink a lot of water during the napping portion even if you don't do this to wake in the night, the ideal might be to do a wake back to bed in the night too (and drink a lot at this time), so that you can maybe have intention setting at like 2:30-3:00am (if you wake at 5am) water helps to make sure you wake up without alarm after each dream at normal time and while sleeping in)

Also an important reason is that even if you don't wake back to bed or nap repeatedly, you might have a false awakening and then reality check out of habit.

So reality check intensely when you wake up, it should be easy, you'll be looking in mirror, checking for cloths etc (in a false awakening you might look different or have ridiculous cloths etc) try several different ones.

As for other times choose something that happens in your day. Like I ride bus & train, so I likely dream about these things all the time, therefore I check like when the bus stops or crosses a street etc. Mix it up maybe you do the same work all the time, so next week switch to checking during your usual routine at work.

The main point is to try to focus on the time of when you'll be napping and your mind will be awake, and to choose activity times that your likely to dream of.


For me I had a lucid at 5:50am this morning after having been awake just before and after 5am. It was a good lucid with good stability, and prospective memory, I even tried to survive the void for quite a while approximate total time < 5min. (tho I don't currently reality check much and didn't do any RC in this lucid dream he he , still the timing is in my opinion the most important thing)