Thread: Why did this happen?

The other day I had a very vivid dream and I somewhat knew that I was dreaming. After eating a doughnut(not IRL) I remembered to do a reality check. I counted my fingers about three times but they all came out to be ten fingers everytime. I tried to see if my thumb would go through my hand but it didn't. Why didn't my reality checks work?

Reality Checks are not full proof.
You need to find the RC with the most success for you.
Personally, I always have the right amount of fingers in a dream, so I don't use that one.
I used the nose RC. Block your nose and try to breath. If its a dream, you'll be able to breath. For me it almost always works. Only once has it not worked, but then I did it again straight away and it did work.

Maybe this one will work better for you?
Or one of the many other RCs you can try.

The fingers RC is not good. The best one is either pinching your nose shut and trying to breath through, or by extension, placing your hand over your mouth and trying to breath through that.

In fact, the mouth one might potentially work better, in that the nose can be blocked up. But if the throat is, then you've got bigger problems to worry about than a reality check!

EDIT: and the mouth one can also be quite easily disguised in a social setting, more so than the nose pinch.

I do the nose RC every once in awhile but in my dreams I always forget that one for some reason. I should probably use the nose RC more often if finger RC don't work for me.

Yea the nose check failed me once after a false awakening, and I didn't do any other checks. I think putting one hand through the other is one of the most flawed of the reality checks.