Thread: Can you reality check too often?

If it's out of a habit, yes. If it's not, I don't think so. The idea is to check if you're dreaming or not, but if you're just doing it routinely, without thinking, there's no use.

-Stenny

Originally Posted by stenny

If it's out of a habit, yes. If it's not, I don't think so. The idea is to check if you're dreaming or not, but if you're just doing it routinely, without thinking, there's no use.

-Stenny

Yeah, that figures. If you always keep in mind why you do routinely reality checks, is that better?

I actually have never done a reality check. I regret it once I thought I was dreaming and I tried to run trough a wall that didn't work to well.

Originally Posted by Silent_Lucidity

Is that bad?

i wouldnt think so...

it would make u more likely to do it in a dream

I ran a lucid dream induction study a couple of years ago, and indeed I found that people that did too many reality checks actually had fewer lucid dreams. However, I only ran 12 participants, so it isn't impossible that this result was simply random. Here's my data, for any that are interested:

As long as you reality check with meaning it should do no harm.
It also helps to do them when you see something strange, odd, out of ordinary

If you make reality testing a strong habit in waking life, it is likely to carry over to your dream time. As the others have mentioned though, if you do it mindlessly though it has no use.

The real strength of reality testing is honing that critical faculty of your mind that observes your environment closely and determines whether or not you are dreaming.

Cool study, nothin7!

The other thing about RCing is you don't want to become so obsessed with this stuff that it interferes with your waking life.