How to tell if it's lucid...

Hi all, new to this.

I have dreams every night and remember them very clearly in regards to events and details.

However, in several readings people mention how it's hard to distinguish between reality and the dream world. This implies that the atmosphere around me typing this message now would be equally real in the dream world..

Is it really that realistic? If so, I certainly haven't had a lucid dream, but would like to know what to expect :)

Thanks all.

Well dreams in general can be very realistic and that is because they are usually based on memories from reality itself. The easiest way to understand how realistic dreams can be simply by looking around you. When you will have a real vivid lucid dream you will be able to know for sure ;) .

The sole requirements of having a lucid dream is knowing that you're dreaming.

The vividness of a dream is not the same as the lucidity of a dream. A dream can be extremely vivid or extremely dull yet not lucid, while a lucid could also be this way. They thing that causes lucid dreams to seem more vivid is the fact that you are conscious and can focus on the dream more. When you focus on a dream it becomes clearer and more vivid thus creating an indirect connection between the two. It's very hard to describe a very vivid lucid dream so you'll just have to experience one for yourself but trust me, it is well worth the wait and is one of the greatest experiences one can have.

Those who end up having difficulty telling the difference between the dream world and reality often have underlying conditions which causes this. It's quite simple to tell the difference between a dream and reality: do a reality check. Even if it says you're awake but you're really in a dream nothing bad can happen to you since it's just a dream. It can never say you're asleep while preforming it in the waking world anyway so there's no way to fail.

It varies, for me. Some dreams are very vivid and convincing. Even after reality checking, I still sometimes can not believe it is a dream. Not all my lucid dreams are like this. I have found that most of my low-quality dreams happen when I am either just entering, or leaving a dream. Lucid dreams in early sleep stages can also be strange, like vivid daydreams.