I'm glad to say that I have recently discovered the world of lucid dreaming! I'm really excited to work on experiencing my first lucid dream. I have some questions, though. I'll start off with this one:

I know that reality checks are crucial to inducing lucid dreams, especially for beginners. I've been doing some all day (jumping, trying to put my hand through my palm, trying to put my hand through a wall), but in order to do this in a dream, won't I have to think about doing? In other words, in order for me to begin a reality check in my dream, won't I have to be conscious in order to think about needing to do a reality check?