How Can I Use This Realization That I'm Dreaming?

Hi fellow Oneironauts.

So I've been doing this practice for 8 going on 9 years (since I was 17). I have had success with Michael Radugas Indirect Method and LaBerge's MILD technique.

But I have noticed that when I have accidentally achieved a DILD, it's obvious because I realized I was dreaming. But usually one notices they are dreaming to an oddity correct? So that is where the dream signs come in.

But the times I have noticed I was dreaming, it wasn't because I noticed something out of the ordinary in the dream, rather I notice I am dreaming due to the fact I realize I'm having a conscious experience when I should be sleeping.

In other words, I realize I'm dreaming due to the fact I am in a conscious experience and remember I am in bed. I realize im dreaming due to noticing im dreaming more or less if that makes sense.

Same for when I talk in a dream, I catch that and becoming aware im dreaming because if i notice i am laughing in my dream, then obviously I'm now in conscious control of my actions if I'm thinking that and know I should be sleeping.

So my question is, how can I use this to my advantage? Thank you and sorry for long post. But this has been bugging me for a few years and i can't figure out how to turn this to my favor. Obviously I have no one else to turn to besides books (which dont really go over this beisdes reality checks and the ususl) so I'd like to ask my fellow Lucid Dreaming friends.

First off, Hi! Welcome to DV! :D

DILD isn't all about looking out for oddities. It helps a lot but it isn't everything. To me DILD is all about building a habit of questioning reality. "Is this a dream?" should be a completely habitual question to ask. And you should be able to answer the question on-the-spot using whatever way you like. Reality checks, look for oddities, try and remember what you were doing just before, whatever.

It sounds to me like your natural reality check is to remember what you were doing before. i.e. "I just went to sleep, how am I in a café?". It's an accidental reality check. It's a habit that shines through as general awareness. You can boost this by making it non-accidental.

So, if you want to really use this to your advantage, on a daily basis, all through the day, regularly question reality. Question "what was I doing 2 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago, an hour ago, etc.", if your day just doesn't add up at all, or if you actually realize you are asleep, well boom it's a dream and you're lucid. But you've gotta question reality on a regular basis. Habits reflect in dreams.

I think it all comes down to about the same thing. When you become lucid by recognizing a dream sign or something odd in a dream, I think it's because you happen to be able to access enough of your true memories from waking life to remember that what you're experiencing isn't possible as a waking-life event and that you must therefore be dreaming. Normally, when one isn't lucid, the mind provides an appropriate set of false memories in a dream that ensures the dreamer always thinks they're living their actual waking life and never remembers what's actually happening… until they wake up.

In your case, it sounds like you're often able to remember directly that you've just gone to sleep and must therefore be dreaming, without needing to have something like a dream sign or oddity clue you in first. I've had this happen to me occasionally, mainly during very light sleep toward the end of my sleep period. In deeper sleep, it usually seems to take me a bit of abstraction first (like noticing something odd, because I just so happened to remember that it is in fact odd) before I can ultimately reach the conclusion that I must be dreaming. Remembering that you're dreaming more directly is a good sign, I think, because if you can remember the truth of what's going on that easily, you're probably in a position to have a very strong level of lucidity that gives you a high level of dream control and allows you to get the most out of LDs.

In any case, though, it seems that attaining full lucidity in a dream starts with remembering in some form. So, my guess would be that to take advantage of this would mean continuing to practice and maintain this ability to access your waking-life memory during a LD. Maybe someone more experienced here will come along with a better answer, though.