FAs still get the best of me

Last night before falling asleep I was thinking to myself, "I gotta get to sleep so I can have lucid dreams!" So naturally, one of my dreams was about falling asleep so I can have lucid dreams.. :roll: When I fell asleep in the dream, I woke up. I recorded the dream in my journal... And then I woke up for real :pfft:

I always test my state when my body wakes up, but never in FAs.. Its frustrating :lipssealed: Am I not doing enough daily RCs? Much of the time when I RC I'll just do a quick nose-plug, and skip the whole am-I-dreaming awareness thing that puffin says is important.. It's just hard to take seriously sometimes.. I'd love to hear anyone's tips for improvement :D

I would guess trying a few different ones throughout the day, and always have a reason to do them. If it becomes routine, I would guess it devalues them a bit.

Granted I'm a dead amateur when it comes to lucid dreaming, but my very first lucid dream that I had this morning I tested a couple RC's.

The lightswitch test worked mostly like you'd expect in real-life. (I remember being mildly amused by that.)

I also pushed on a wall as a RC test, and again, it behaved like real life.

One I'm definitely going to make a habit is double checking clocks and looking outside the field of view of my glasses (I noticed in retrospect I wasn't wearing glasses in the dream yet my vision wasn't blurry.).

Just a thought. Seems logical that the more different RC's you do, the more chances you have at lucidity.

I would suggest that you wear something on your wrist, like a comfy bracelet so that it doesn't bother you. Or simply draw something on the back of your hand or in the palm.
Don't focus too much on it, just know you have it.
For the first dreams with this method, you shouldn't be having your bracelet or drawing on your hand. But, the more nights you do that, your mind will add the item to your FA's.

However, I'm no expert LD'er, just a natural. Only making that up from what I've read on Dreamviews.

I think FA's deserve a more extensive RC routine than the normal ones you might perform throughout the day. Since you are in your own room, you should have plenty of familiar things that you can check. Here are some that I use based on my own room. They work well for the purpose of FA's because you don't have to move much for them. I don't do all of them in order. I just randomly think to do them when I wake up, as I'm writing notes in my DJ, and as I'm settling back down to sleep again.

- Become aware of my head and vision. Am I wearing my sleep mask?
- Bite my tongue. Does it hurt? (Thanks to Serenity for this one)
- Sense the light in the room. Is the window in the right place?
- Look at the bed. Are the pillow and sheets the right color?
- Look at the clock. Is the time right?
- Is there anyone else in my room? There shouldn't be.
- Scan the room for the door, furniture, etc. Is this really my room?