Thread: I don't mean to sound impatient but...

How long until reality checks start kicking in? Also, is it possible for your mind to get used to reality checks and make it so they fail on purpose? Just a paranoid question

You just have to do RCs enough so that they carry over into a dream. For some people, it takes a day, some a week, month, maybe even more. If you do them VERY frequently during the day, they should kick in soon. But if you're a bit forgetful about them, it will take longer. It's kind of about luck, but doing RCs more will increase your chance! A good way to remember to RC is to weite something on thr back of your hand, and everytime you see it, RC. Do a couple different RCs. Like look at the clock a lot. They are usually weird in a dream. Sometimes they will read something like 7:77 and right away you should know your dreaming. My main RC is the nose plug, it has never failed me! Also you should try a WBTB too, you'll have a much higher chance of a lucid dream, and you'll recall some other dreams too.

I'm sure this isn't the answer you're looking for, but everyone is different. Some people's reality checks transfer the same day they start, while I, on the other hand, have been doing it for little over a week and still nothing. Might be months before it happens.

In regards to your second question, I think that's why the holding-the-nose one works so well, because despite holding your nose shut, your real nose is still very much active and you can still breathe. The only way I can think of it not working, is if you imagined not being able to breathe - which I suppose would be pretty horrific, if nothing else.

Originally Posted by moSh

I'm sure this isn't the answer you're looking for, but everyone is different. Some people's reality checks transfer the same day they start, while I, on the other hand, have been doing it for little over a week and still nothing. Might be months before it happens.

In regards to your second question, I think that's why the holding-the-nose one works so well, because despite holding your nose shut, your real nose is still very much active and you can still breathe. The only way I can think of it not working, is if you imagined not being able to breathe - which I suppose would be pretty horrific, if nothing else.

Holding the nose and breathing definitely works the best for me, I've had the finger through the hand fail in a dream and even occasionally had a clock seem fine, but the nose pinch always works.

It can be any amount of time. Everyone is different. If you get lucky it can be the first day. Others it can take a year. I say that you shoul ud use reality checks with another technique.

Combine it with MILD and you should be fine But yeah it can take a while, but mainly it depends on how badly you want to get lucid and how much awareness you put into those RC's and your day overall. Visualizing stuff, believing it'll happen etc.

The only reason the nose-RC would fail is probably because you're face down on your pillow. Other than that it should work all the time.

Originally Posted by USA

The only reason the nose-RC would fail is probably because you're face down on your pillow. Other than that it should work all the time.

I've had it fail in dreams lots of times.

That's just something that perhaps your instincts towards Yankee Oppression won't let you grasp: Everybody is different.

I would recommend not RCing until you have already inferred that you're dreaming. Then it's just to confirm and stabilize.

Denks for te help guys!

A couple of days after reading Tholey's book I did an RC in a dream but it failed, so I lost some of my enthusiasm ; ) Then one of my two real lucid dreams happened after reading about it on a forum but not doing RCs and in a dream without any noteable dream signs. ; )

I always do an RC before I go to the toilet :p

The first half of this question has already been answered - obviously everyone is different and it takes different amounts of time for you to start to become lucid.

In regards to 'will your mind make your RCs fail', the only reason your RC's will fail is because you are not doing them correctly. When you RC, you shoud always be truly questioning reality and everything around you, and expect the RC to work as though you are in a dream. If you are simply relying on the RC itself, then there is a chance you will simply assume you are awake and it will work as such - if you don't expect it to work, it won't. Reality checks are much more about truly questioning reality than they are the actual technique. Your mind won't work against you, or develop any sort of resistance to RCs, it is completely controlled by you.