My mind plays tricks on me..

I've never really achieved full lucidity in my dreams, even though I do remember all my dreams.

I registered here about a month ago, so yeah I'm kind of new! :)
I've tried to make new habits when I'm fully awake (like taking reality checks) to make the habits cross into my dreams.

Talking about those "dream-signs", I have one in particular which is also mentioned in the guides.
I seem to loose my teeths, and I always believe I'm awake while doing so.
Last night I even took a reality check while dreaming (after I lost a tooth) by breathing while holding my nose closed.
I also prepared to not consentre with the breathing while doing the check.
I couldn't breathe, just great, I bought the dream as a reality.
(In my own honest opinion, my dreams are VERY realistic)

So for me, the breathing reality check habit didn't work, or at least it isn't fully reliable(?).

I do admit that the only true reality check I can use, is reading stuff from papers/magazines.
When dreaming, the words always change for every glims I look.

However, I'm wondering if I'll just accept this reality check aswell when I use it in a dream.
Could it occur that I will read the words just once, and then when I look upon them the next time,
(even though the words has changed) that I will accept it because as long as the subconcious mind shares memory with my awareness.
I didn't actually remember the words from the first time I looked at it, and neither did the subconcious mind.
So could the subconcious mind fill in the gaps with some possible words?

Think of it like this:
-I'm in a dream. I see a red car.
-Now I spin around, and see the car again. This time the car is a bigger car than it was originally, and with different shapes.

Maybe because the first time I saw the car, the car was only a car as in the word "car" - and didn't have any shape at all.
My mind told me that it was a car, so I accepted that fact.

But it's always at the moment I wake up, that I realize that the car was really just a caravan from the start.
This realization never happens while I'm dreaming, hence it's really hard to use my memory while dreaming.
It also happens with dream-characters. Through an entire dream my dream-characters can change up to 3-4 times.
I didn't understand that they changed appearances while I was dreaming, but I do realize what has happened when I wake up.

My awareness always agree with the subconcious mind while dreaming.
But I do not have much of those unrealistic physics stuff (it has happened).
However, they do make a lot of nonsense. But I never realize that untill I wake up.

Welcome to the Forum! :D
Try to RC during the day. It may sound stupid, but it really works!

Yeah man keep doin ur reality checks every day as much as u can itll get into a habit then ull be doin em in ur dreams in no time!

WELCOME :D

I second what everyone has said about the reality checks during the day ... although ...

I've had similar experiences of the reality checks not quite working. For example, I was dreaming and looked at my hand (looking for the lines in the skin to see whether they had sufficient detail, or if they moved etc.) and what I saw looked convincing. I like the breathing check ... I've never heard of that one before, but then I haven't been doing this for very long!

Another thing that keeps cropping up ... false memories. Sometimes, in moments where unusual things happen, my brain comes up with what I can only describe as false memories, something that I realise on waking isn't real, but I find totally convincing when I'm dreaming.

Just so you know that you're not the only one!

Yes, as I said I AM doing reality checks when I'm awake.
I try to make it a habit so they will cross over in my dreams.
One of them did, but it didn't work.

I have the same problem with my mind wanting to play tricks on me.
And like you, I seem to always wanna weigh things before trying it "But what if my mind simply makes me pass the reality test in my dreams?" I think that the more you ask yourself that question, the more likely it is to happen. Ultimately, your mind is at Your mercy, not the other way around. Its an idea thats hard to fathom, even for me, but thats just human nature, and there are ways around it. You have to tell yourself with Absolute Certainty that your reality checks will work Correctly in your dreams. If you leave it up to your subconscious mind to dictate whether or not they will work, you'll often be disappointed.
Like Morpheus said:
"You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear...Doubt..and Disbelief."

Those are your worst enemies when it comes to lucid dreaming. Its the same with flying. I usually get so caught up in Hoping I can fly once I'm lucid, that I start to have trouble with actually Doing it because I'm so conscious of "what if I can't?" My greatest success with flying comes from saying "Screw It!" and just launching into the air and doing it.

Make sense?

there have been times when the nose breathing technique failed me, usually after I had been doing it allot for a reality check during the day, but it wouldn’t just not work it would be like I was breathing through a pinhole or something, which I guess was caused by my nose being stuffed up in R/L while I was having the dream, I think this happened because this is how I believe the reality check works:

you grab your nose in the dream but your real arm doesn’t move, and since you have full control over your breathing while dreaming (i.e. you could make yourself breathe slower in r/l while in a dream, your dream nose is closed but your feeling your real nose breathing, its not just because you get used to being able to breathe through your nose or something like that.

/
l_ just thought id explain it for all the noobies, this is probably the reason your reality check wouldn’t work... because you had a stuffy nose in the bed