Why should I do reality checks?

I have always found it odd that I have very few dream signs, being that all my dreams rarely ever have any similarities. I can remember only a few times I was in a familiar location. Sometimes my dream references a dream that I had years ago. I have never even done a reality check in a dream. I just become lucid from my surroundings.
THE POINT IS.....
My dreams are messed up.
I can't really look for dream signs because I have almost nothing to look out for. The only dreams I become lucid in are not because of dream signs, but because I just am more aware in the dream and I realize that something is wrong. So with that being said, what's the point of me doing reality checks when I never use them anyway? I only use reality checks to think about lucid dreaming more during the day, so the question "am I dreaming?" can eventually carry on into a dream. And it works surprisingly well for me. I have a lucid dream every other night or so. I just think that if don't do reality checks, the question "am I dreaming?" won't be answered and will just leave me confused. I would have to test if I'm dreaming or not. It's like asking yourself "what time is it?" and you don't check the time. It's just sort of a dilemma for me. I think it would be right to stop doing any reality checks besides "am I dreaming?" but at the same time, it would be ineffective to even ask if I'm dreaming at all. Could someone possibly provide some answers to my situation here?

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Originally Posted by LodeRunner13

I only use reality checks to think about lucid dreaming more during the day, so the question "am I dreaming?" can eventually carry on into a dream. And it works surprisingly well for me.

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I think you answered yourself there.

I'm not sure if I understood the worry you present after that. I think you worry if you do not commit to your reality checks properly, you won't reality check properly in the dream? I wouldn't worry too much about that. Like you said, in most of your lucid dreams, you just know you are dreaming. Dreams feel a certain way and it is possible to distinguish that when you have lucidity. Keep doing your reality checks and it will keep your mind on the look out for the feeling. Trust that you will catch it. You are doing well already. :)

Dream signs are not necessarily similarities across dreams. Dream signs are any signs that we are dreaming. Anything we realize is wrong during the dream is a dream sign. Dream signs are how we tell the difference between dream and reality.

The whole point of day work is to rehearse what we want to do during the dream. If you don't want to do a reality check or ask if you are dreaming in order to become lucid (you don't have to) you don't have to include this process in your day work.

During the day, you could rehearse identifying differences between dream and reality, which causes you to realize you are dreaming. This is what you plan to do when you're dreaming.

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Originally Posted by dolphin

Dream signs are how we tell the difference between dream and reality.

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Just to add on to this bit above, I would also say that the intention you're setting - in particular by doing RCs during waking life - and the focus you have on that intention, play a big role in becoming aware that you're dreaming. Most of my adult LDs have been from RCs, but many times I've done RCs in dreams only to conclude in the dream that it was the "normal" state of things, because the context reinforced that notion somehow, even when one time my hand was green and a finger short - the implication being that I simply do not carry over enough focus into the dream-state (which is a consequence of constant fatigue and poor sleep, in my case).

By contrast, my childhood LDs, which were frequent but many times only semi-lucid, never involved RCs at all (which I didn't even know about back then), and the entire awareness of the dream was purely coming from focus on what you can consider dream signs, as by dolphin's definition, which is pretty good. I should write that down somewhere... :cheeky:

Reality checks are really just checks for anything that would be impossible in waking life.
You can increase your chances of performing reality checks during dreams by practising it a lot in waking life, and always being ready to double-check if you might be dreaming whenever something unusual happens.
And it's actually possible that you could be dreaming at that point - I have had several dreams where I have felt a bit funny for a while but then brushed it off because "everything feels too realistic to be a dream", and then one minute later I have woken up in bed. :cheeky:

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. :)