Hi,
So just last week I started to really focus on reality checks. At first I looked at my hand, and then I added in holding my breath and TRYING to inhale while holding my breath. (They both didn't really work, I will explain why)

So I think I had my first bit of success the day before, I had awakened and fallen asleep again (prime dreaming time). But while I was falling asleep, I tried to be aware of the state between when I was thinking in bed and when I was actually asleep.
I think I actually noticed that I was asleep, so I started to do stuff I've always wanted to do (go to places that I always see and wonder what it would feel like to be standing there).

But I don't know if I was actually asleep, and it didn't feel very real. Also, added to some of the stuff I wanted to do, were random dream/thoughts.

Curiously enough, I did try the spinning and looking up method to change the landscape, and I think it worked. However, the dream ended when I was in a place that I didn't think or really want to go to, so I spun a bunch of times but I couldn't stop and and I spun back to consciousness.
I also tried the looking at hands thing sometime in there, but they looked normal.



Just this morning, I had fallen asleep again after waking up in the morning and I tried to do the same thing I did before; be aware of when I am thinking in bed and when I have actually fallen asleep. It didn't work. I had a false awakening, I looked at the clock, and I realized that in my dream, I had difficulty opening one eye because I was sleeping on my front on one eye (in my false awakening). (Recalling is hard, I should write down more dreams). So I told myself in my false awakening to sleep on my eye again, and if I had difficulty opening it then I should do a reality check. So I fell asleep again, and I think the dream had the same beginning or something, and again I couldn't see out of one eye, and suddenly I became aware that I was lucid (inside a non-lucid dream, which I did NOT realize). I did a reality check, trying to inhale while holding my breath, but I still couldn't, but I was positive I was dreaming. However, I didn't seem to do anything that I wanted to do; I did random things and turned up in random places. There was a point where I tried to spin around to warp myself to a place I wanted to be, but it didn't work and I remember thinking that I wasn't trying hard enough. I went back to my room and saw myself in my bed and told one of my family members and they saw me too, and then they thought I was crazy to mess with these things.

I then woke up realizing that the entire thing had been a non-lucid dream.



So a couple of questions for this:
1. How do I know if I am lucid?
2. When I do the inhaling while holding breath reality check, am I supposed to actually try to breathe in or just hold my breath and take note of whether or not I can still breathe? (because inhaling didn't work)
3. General tips/suggestions


Thanks!