"I'm dreaming"

If I'm in a dream, I'll sometimes say these words to myself, but they lack the compulsion to really wake up my conscious mind. My theory is that it's so much more of a gut feeling than a logical conclusion that my conscious mind doesn't need to wake up. Additionally, I think I've said the words enough that they're really sort of meaningless to my brain now.

What are some good alternate ways of really waking up the conscious brain? What can I do in a dream that uses the logical part extensively? I would say multiply two two-digit numbers, but I doubt I can do that inside a dream. Although.. maybe if I keep trying I'll slowly wake up my conscious mind.

Anyway, anybody have ideas?
Thanks for any help.

Reality... Check?

I mean, if you can already make yourself say things even without being lucid. Then you would be able to make yourself do a reality check, yes?

Otherwise, ask yourself about how you ended up where you are.

Last night, I realized I was dreaming, and out of formality, did a reality check. It FAILED! I was disappointed, because it wasn't being very realiable. I find it hard to expect something to be wrong (I'm a programmer, I'm conditioned to expect the right results the first 500 times, even though it's always too optimistic).

After I realized I was dreaming, I mustered the courage to start yelling things. It still felt real, but I knew I was dreaming, so I forced myself to be vocal.

However, it seems to be that these things like reality checks and realization of dreaming don't really make me conscious in any way. Or if they do, then lucid dreams are a let down o_O, because I expected something a bit more.. impressive. It felt just like the dream did before. I don't know why my brain manages to stay rather.. submerged even when I say "I'm dreaming" and try to RC. That's why I'm hoping for new methods, so my brain won't be used to them.

I'm not sure how I got where I am. I sort of learned to control dreams under a feeling of pressure and fear (my dreams are usually like that), and I definitely learned to recognize that I'm dreaming just instinctually, not really through anything logical. I'm not sure how I can do it without feeling conscious. My dream logic remained the same, and I didn't really feel.. omnipotent. Nothing changed when I realized I was dreaming.

Any theories or help? Anybody? Help with NOT failing my RCs would be good; how do I counteract my placebo effect of expecting the "reality" thing to happen?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobotGymnast

Last night, I realized I was dreaming,

I definitely learned to recognize that I'm dreaming just instinctually,

---

Right, you are lucid dreaming. It probably is just that they are of dissapointing quality.

Then you just have to work on clarity! Rub your hands! Feel things! Lick a rusty spoon! When you force your brain to simulate those feelings and sensations, supposedly you should make the dream clearer.

So maybe that would increase the feeling of being aware, too?

o_O I don't feel very conscious. My mind is still a blur and logical thinking is slow and murky. It doesn't seem to correspond with consciousness.

I guess the best way to describe it is that I AM conscious, but it's sort of like having a little pet of consciousness. It's there, but it's its own little blob, and not really effective at doing anything.

It still feels like my brain's mostly going through sort of confused, dream logic (I guess I would say it's like my brain when I'm awake, but through a layer or two of molasses). How do I get rid of that?