Thread: Why should I do reality checks?

I think reality checks are as important as you perceive them to be. Its entirely possible to regularly become lucid without performing reality checks, because as others may have already mentioned: the key to awareness in dreams is awareness itself.

I used to perform routine checks all the time for the purposes of it becoming a habit. This in itself is a fine concept, but one must consider that it is no good if you don't retain that same awareness while you're dreaming. I've had many occasions where I would perform a reality check in a non-lucid dream that would indicate I'm dreaming, but I wasn't aware enough of what was actually going on and took no notice. I combated this by discarding every reality check I used to do except for one (trying to breath through my nose while holding it, simply because I found it to be the most fool proof) but I made a conscious effort to remain aware of this so that I would always become lucid whenever I actually did it in a dream, because it felt so unnatural being able to breathe despite blocking the air flow. In my mind it only meant one thing: I'm dreaming.

I slightly digress though - my original point is that it is the awareness behind everything you do that will ultimately make you lucid or not. There is nothing wrong with reality checks. I still do them. The time that I take to perform one isn't solely the action though, as I try to take in everything around me and study how it feels, how it smells, what I'm seeing, what I'm feeling, etc.

You'll notice that "life" in a dream has a distinct feeling, but I'm not too sure how to explain it to you. It's kind of a heavy, sleepy feeling for me. It's different. Instead of looking for signs and cues I instead focus on trying to feel for that feeling. When I used to lucid dream a bucket load I was able to distinguish if I was dreaming just by being present. Like I said: it's awareness that fuels any reality check and makes it useful.

I hope this all makes sense because it's a little bit complicated to grasp if you haven't had that same enlightenment. I stopped lucid dreaming a long time ago for various reasons but have recently decided to try again so I'm back at square one again. Periodically through the day I will experience moments of clarity where I just stop and observe the moment. I study it, wonder what it is I'm actually experiencing, and try to "feel" what the world I'm in feels like, so that when the time comes that I am aware enough in a dream, I will know that everything feels different and will seriously question my reality by holding my nose and trying to breathe... And boom there we go - lucid!

Hope this helps.