Nose Pinch Reality Check question

Hi fellow dreamers!

I had an interesting thought this morning when I was laying in bed. A few nights ago I read something about how if you count your breaths you have a better chance of going into sleep paralysis, or maybe it was just a relaxation technique before trying Yoshi's Wbtb/wild technique. After about 15 minutes of lying there trying to relax it began to become hard because my nose was stuffy. So heres the question.

If your nose is stuffy in real life, could the Nose Pinch ruin your lucidity, or make you think your still in real life because you can't breath through it?

Thanks, I'm looking to any answers or anybody's thoughts on the topic!

- Zerk

Well let me tell you about what happened to me once:
I had a WILD, so there was no need to make a RC, I knew I was dreaming, the dream was going well, but then it started to fade away, instead of spinning around I decided to stay still and not open my eyes, to try and DEILD back into the dream. I felt like I came back to my real body, then like I was dragged back into the dream. The dream started in my bed, I stood up and did a RC, pinched my nose, I tried to breathe but I had trouble breathing, like some air did go through, but not as much as usually (just like when you do a RC in real life when you have a stuffed nose). During the whole dream I was wondering if it was a dream or not, I tried to go through walls, couldn't do it, tried to fly, couldn't do it, tried to put my left hand through my right hand, couldn't do it. However I was almost sure it was a dream, I started looking around my house to find something that would make it obvious that it was a dream, but everything seemed too real, I gave up and decided that I had actually waken up. Then I actually woke up.

To answer your question: yes, it can make you feel like you are in real life because you can't breathe fully through it, it WILL make you lose lucidity/not make you lucid.

Although I'm not sure whether it would, I wouldn't take the chance, and do a different RC instead.

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Originally Posted by AndresLD

Well let me tell you about what happened to me once:
I had a WILD, so there was no need to make a RC, I knew I was dreaming, the dream was going well, but then it started to fade away, instead of spinning around I decided to stay still and not open my eyes, to try and DEILD back into the dream. I felt like I came back to my real body, then like I was dragged back into the dream. The dream started in my bed, I stood up and did a RC, pinched my nose, I tried to breathe but I had trouble breathing, like some air did go through, but not as much as usually (just like when you do a RC in real life when you have a stuffed nose). During the whole dream I was wondering if it was a dream or not, I tried to go through walls, couldn't do it, tried to fly, couldn't do it, tried to put my left hand through my right hand, couldn't do it. However I was almost sure it was a dream, I started looking around my house to find something that would make it obvious that it was a dream, but everything seemed too real, I gave up and decided that I had actually waken up. Then I actually woke up.

To answer your question: yes, it can make you feel like you are in real life because you can't breathe fully through it, it WILL make you lose lucidity/not make you lucid.

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Very interesting thanks that helped a lot. I haven't lucid dreamt yet or have even been able to reality check in a dream yet. But I'll be sure to try to definitely get in the habit of Hand checking instead of Nose pinching.

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Originally Posted by Zerk

Very interesting thanks that helped a lot. I haven't lucid dreamt yet or have even been able to reality check in a dream yet. But I'll be sure to try to definitely get in the habit of Hand checking instead of Nose pinching.

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Oh but don't get me wrong, I consider nose pinching the best reality check to do in a lucid dream. Even when lucid I have failed to put one of my hands through the other one, nose pinching will only fail you if your nose is TOO stuffed, or if you just pinch it and breathe without really paying attention to the result.

Make sure that every time you pinch your nose and breathe (IRL or in dreams), you try to breath for about 3 seconds, and REALLY pay attention to it, one time I pinched my nose in a dream and breathed, but didn't really minded if I was able to breathe or not, so I didn't go lucid.

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Originally Posted by AndresLD

Oh but don't get me wrong, I consider nose pinching the best reality check to do in a lucid dream. Even when lucid I have failed to put one of my hands through the other one, nose pinching will only fail you if your nose is TOO stuffed, or if you just pinch it and breathe without really paying attention to the result.

Make sure that every time you pinch your nose and breathe (IRL or in dreams), you try to breath for about 3 seconds, and REALLY pay attention to it, one time I pinched my nose in a dream and breathed, but didn't really minded if I was able to breathe or not, so I didn't go lucid.

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Hm... ok. So what i've learned is that it's best to practice multiple Rc's regardless of the situation. Each one can help me further have a chance of lucidity. Just be aware of real life factors that can influence the outcomes of Rc's in my dreams. Any other input?

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Originally Posted by Zerk

Hm... ok. So what i've learned is that it's best to practice multiple Rc's regardless of the situation. Each one can help me further have a chance of lucidity. Just be aware of real life factors that can influence the outcomes of Rc's in my dreams. Any other input?

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Someone once told me that the best RC is awareness, during the day try to ask to yourself "Is this a dream? Does this scenario make sense? How did I get here? Do I know these people?" many times, and your awareness will improve. This way, in a dream you will ask yourself one of these questions, and whenever you are not sure of what the answer is THEN you can do a reality check :P.

I agree completely that seems to make sense. For some reason i feel like Mr.Monk would be awesome at lucid dreaming. If your familiar with that show at all. Thanks a lot btw : )
- zerk

I can totally relate with you AndresLD. I've had quite a few dreams where the nose pinch rc didn't yield the exact results i was expecting. For some reason, when i lay down at night, my nose seems to stop up a little. Not because i'm sick or it's full of snot or something, but it is a little more difficult to breathe through my nose. It is usually not enough to bother me, but i have noticed the difference in an ld before. I did the nose pinch rc in a dream once and i was only able to breath just a little bit through only one side of my nose. Luckily, i still became lucid. The reason that i think it worked for me, is because i make sure that when i do the nose pinch rc, that no air whatsoever can come through my nose. So that way, if i do the nose pinch rc in a dream and any air comes through; i'll become lucid.

So if you do the nose pinch rc throughout the day, make sure that you really have your nose shut, so that no air can come through. This seems to make the rc more reliable.

This is my main RC and it always works well

I got a DILD with the nose pinch rc, this morning and yesterday morning. Those are not the only times its gotten me lucid. I'd estimate that's it's gotten me lucid somewhere between 30 and 40 times. Most of them not recorded though, :P.

A couple of nights ago I had a DILD where I kept pinching my nose, but I couldn't tell if I could still breathe or not because my nose was so stuffed. Eventually, after about 20 tries, I finally figured out that I could breathe and got over excited and woke up. :lol:

I don't think it should alter the RC itself in anyway since the objective is completely blocking the nasal passages and trying to breath through them.

If anything being sick may be a bonus. Personally I never have dreams about being sick or having a stuffy nose, so if I'm sick in real life, then I would notice that I'm able to breath normally in a dream without even having to RC.

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Originally Posted by Akono

I don't think it should alter the RC itself in anyway since the objective is completely blocking the nasal passages and trying to breath through them.

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I've had Nose Pinch RCs fail on me several times due to blocked nasal passages. It's a very real possibility, which is why nowadays, whenever I'm in doubt, I just jump out the nearest window.

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Originally Posted by Mzzkc

I've had Nose Pinch RCs fail on me several times due to blocked nasal passages. It's a very real possibility, which is why nowadays, whenever I'm in doubt, I just jump out the nearest window.

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I don't think that is very... smart, in fact I think that is very dangerous. Imagine you are not dreaming, what would happen then :shock:?

I'd obviously plummet to my demise.

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Originally Posted by Zerk

If your nose is stuffy in real life, could the Nose Pinch ruin your lucidity, or make you think your still in real life because you can't breath through it?

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That reality check failed me a few times as well, but it actually didn't matter. Of course, the basic theory is that you become lucid when the result of the RC shows that you are dreaming. Practically it works a bit different, at least when properly trained. When you do a RC, you already assume that you are dreaming anyway. You should!

When the RC failed me in a dream I was surprised and tried again and again until it finally gave a correct result. When awake I always train RCs by sincerely asking myself if I am dreaming and I always expect the RC to succeed (= dreaming). So whenever I do a RC in a dream, this habit leads to instant lucidity. I wouldn't even have to proceed doing the technical part of the check. I do nevertheless. It would be bad to break the proper scheme.

Nevertheless, it is advisable to always perform more than one type of RC. I don't, but it's advisable. ;)

I have written a small article on reality checks if you're interested.