Thread: Best Reality Check

Everyone share their opinions on the easiest to stick with, least awkward for people around you, most effective reality check!

When I do reality checks, I usually just go through all 4 of these. It doesn't take very long, and you can get away with doing them in public without anyone noticing. Personally, I do 4 of them in case I'm actually dreaming and manage to come up with a reason why I have 6 fingers or w/e.

- Randomly trying to put your fingers through stuff is the easiest one to do I think. Just whatever your fingers touch, try to have them go through whatever it is. If it works, you're dreaming. You can also try putting your fingers through your hands. I've had the most success with getting lucid from this one.

- Noticing that your nose exists. You don't have to actually look at it, it's usually just a phantom nose when you're looking at other stuff. This one is probably one of the easiest to do.

- Seeing how many fingers you have on each hand. All it takes is a second to check. This one has unexpected results for me every time. Once I had really weird looking claw fingers and realized I was dreaming.

- Holding your breath as you normally hold your breath, and at the same time, try to breath in and out. Unless you've had a tracheotomy, this should be impossible unless you're in a dream. I've only used this one so far to prove to myself I'm not dreaming.

I do all the RCs that Schmaven does. I go LD mostly with the bearthing and fingernumber ones. And they are not awkward.

Originally Posted by Schmaven

When I do reality checks, I usually just go through all 4 of these. It doesn't take very long, and you can get away with doing them in public without anyone noticing. Personally, I do 4 of them in case I'm actually dreaming and manage to come up with a reason why I have 6 fingers or w/e.

- Randomly trying to put your fingers through stuff is the easiest one to do I think. Just whatever your fingers touch, try to have them go through whatever it is. If it works, you're dreaming. You can also try putting your fingers through your hands. I've had the most success with getting lucid from this one.

- Noticing that your nose exists. You don't have to actually look at it, it's usually just a phantom nose when you're looking at other stuff. This one is probably one of the easiest to do.

- Seeing how many fingers you have on each hand. All it takes is a second to check. This one has unexpected results for me every time. Once I had really weird looking claw fingers and realized I was dreaming.

- Holding your breath as you normally hold your breath, and at the same time, try to breath in and out. Unless you've had a tracheotomy, this should be impossible unless you're in a dream. I've only used this one so far to prove to myself I'm not dreaming.

Yeah the looking at your fingers always works for me, strange thing though once i had six fingers but here's the strange thing, on my right hand which is the only i look at when i remember to the last two fingers are always bent to the left. So whenever i look at my fingers there are always more than usual and i always get lucid.

Originally Posted by Eric

Everyone share their opinions on the easiest to stick with, least awkward for people around you, most effective reality check!

finger counting works wonders for me

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 6, 7 oh what the hell"

I find that pushing my fingers through my hand usually works the best for me, also the breathing one seems to work very well.

One that I haven't tried yet is trying to lick your elbow, sounds interesting.

I just check the nose because it's easy to do while walking. Helps keep me focused.

Originally Posted by Afterglow

One that I haven't tried yet is trying to lick your elbow, sounds interesting.

might look interesting in public

Originally Posted by Afterglow

One that I haven't tried yet is trying to lick your elbow, sounds interesting.

So if you succeed, it's a dream, right? Just wanna make sure I'm not the only one unable to get my tongue to the outer elbow joint. I guess that looks a bit too awkward to do in public.

For me, it has to be gravity checking, since it works even on FA.

Telekinesis is my favorite way to do RCs. I got a loaf of bread to fly into my hand from 15 ft away one time to get me lucid. The easiest way to explain how to do it, is just expect stuff to fly around or whatever you want. Just be aware of what you're doing while you're trying to do it. It's actually really easy to do. After I got the bread, I was grabbing pieces of chicken from people's plates from across the room. Although as fun as it is in dreams, it is slightly awkward if you have to try too hard to make it work. Reaching really hard for stuff works, but if you're not dreaming, you kind of look like a crazy person. If you're worried about awkwardness, then just think it, that's all it takes.

Originally Posted by Schmaven

Reaching really hard for stuff works, but if you're not dreaming, you kind of look like a crazy person. If you're worried about awkwardness, then just think it, that's all it takes.

I probably read too much fantasy, but I wonder if all these reality checks can make the DREAM intrude upon reality?

What I mean is if someone already has an unstable hold on reality, can these constant reality checks begin to produce hallucinations?

And my hold on reality is quite firm by the way.

I think it depends on what you conclude after doing reality checks. If you're not dreaming, and something happens that you think should only happen in a dream, and you start to really think you're dreaming, it fucks with you slightly. Reality checks are a good way to avoid this confusion though.

Originally Posted by Schmaven

Telekinesis is my favorite way to do RCs. I got a loaf of bread to fly into my hand from 15 ft away one time to get me lucid. The easiest way to explain how to do it, is just expect stuff to fly around or whatever you want. Just be aware of what you're doing while you're trying to do it. It's actually really easy to do. After I got the bread, I was grabbing pieces of chicken from people's plates from across the room. Although as fun as it is in dreams, it is slightly awkward if you have to try too hard to make it work. Reaching really hard for stuff works, but if you're not dreaming, you kind of look like a crazy person. If you're worried about awkwardness, then just think it, that's all it takes.

Use the force, Luke, use the force. I wanna see the look on your face when it works one day and you're not dreaming.

Memory reality checks, never fails except for FAs.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Memory reality checks, never fails except for FAs.

How does that work?

I check my watch twice, or just read something twice but lately I found that there is times in my dreams that writing actually stays still. Everytime I walk outside I look up at the sky to make sure its blue and realistic - that one is just plain fun to do.

I've been getting in the habitof double checking my watch. Not only do I check the numbers for consistency, but also to see if I'm at the right place at the right time. For instance, if I am going to the pool at 11:00, I am most likely dreaming because the pool doesn't open until 1:00. If I'm feeling even more ambitious, I'll turn the watch upside-down. If it doesn't change, I'm dreaming. If it changes when I put it right-side-up, I'm dreaming. I can also re-read the text on the watch, and check to see if the date is right. The best thing about the digital watch check is not that it has so many ways to check reality, but that it is discreet and appropriate in any situation.

Be sure to get a good watch, unlike I did. I'm using a dollar-store watch. Tonight, it flickered all crazy for a few seconds. I followed up with a hand-check and a nose-plugging check.

I block my nostrils as if I were going to pop my ears, but instead I inhale.

I did have 3 I usually did in this order: look at my nose, inhale through fingers, and push my finger through my hand. But in one dream, I didn't get lucid until the second one. So now, I just do that.

The reality check I use is to check if I currently have my God-like powers at the moment.

if(GodPowers) then I'm in my mental world.

if(!GodPowers) then I'm in 'reality'.

I've got to correct myself here. Holding your nose and trying to breath can be a good RC. For me it was the only one that worked at all last night, but...

It only worked when I started using my left hand. Before that, I had false positives twice and I really tried hard, because I knew it was a dream anyway. Other RCs like poking your fingers through your hand didn't work, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't try the left hand there though, maybe that's some kind of key for me.

Counting the fingers on either of my hands always seems to do the trick for me. I can't say how well other reality checks work for me since looking at my hand is always the one I do first and it has yet to fail me.

my order of checks:
1.) look at hands
2.) count fingers on the hand
3.) try to press finger through palm
4.) pull on skin on the edge of my thumb to see if it stretches
5.) pinch my hand hard to see if it hurts
6.) try to press my tongue through the roof of my mouth
7.) try to press my tongue through my teeth
8.) close one eye to check the existence of my nose
9.) pinch my nose and try to breath

if those all pass you're in reality, if any fail you've either seriously injured yourself or you're in a dream

I'm a Finger-through-Palm person. It's the easiest one for me to do in a dream. When I do it, it feels so awesome, like your finger is melting into your hand. Sometimes the hand I put the finger through will look like it has ripples in it.