There are a number of crucial abilities that should be mastered if you aim is to induce lucid dreaming…
And yes! Reality checks are one of them!
In order to learn how to lucid dream, it is a necessity to be able to recognize the difference within a dream and the conscious reality.
Let’s start with that: What exactly is a reality check?
Reality check is the action that you perform during the day, that tests your reality. It can be psychical or mental.
Reality check is an essential and simple technique that will prove to you if you are in the REAL world or in the DREAM world.
In this article we will focus on a few aspects:
1. Why is ESSENTIAL to do reality checks?
– Reality check meaning and purpose
2. How to remember to do reality checks in dreams? (the scientific PROOF on how reality checks work!)
3. How to perform reality checks properly?
4. When is the BEST TIME to perform reality checks?
+ tips on HOW TO REMEMBER TO DO THEM!
5. Examples with the 10 most effective reality checks
6. Do they always work?
7. Final Tips (Must Do’es for faster results!)
1. Why is ESSENTIAL to do reality checks?
REASON 1: Importance of making reality checks a habit
The whole idea is that by doing reality checks in your daily life, sooner or later you will start doing them in your dreams too.
Usually, we don’t realize that we dream to the point we wake up.
By implementing the reality checks in your waking life, you will start doing them in your dreams too, when your conscious mind will easily come to the realization – “Oh, I am dreaming“!
Doesn’t it make sense?
Persistent daily performance of reality checks can expectedly lead to practice them in dreams too.
(See the scientific research below!)
REASON 2: Consciousness
The state of being conscious determine the awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
When you think about it, even in our waking life, often we are not 100% aware of the surroundings and we simply don’t remember EVERYTHING.
While we are doing our common daily routines such as brushing your teeth in the morning, going to school, university or work, or similar situations that are even not in our everyday life, we don’t really pay attention to everything.
Unless we don’t try hard to recall a certain moment, we may simply forget about it.
So simply said, how are we suppose to be conscious in our dreams when we are not conscious in our waking life?
Reality checks are exactly for that reason — they make you stop for a second and pay attention to your surrounding.
Another important fact is that we are not aware that we are dreaming, because we think that we are awake.
It is simple – by taking the decision of doubting your reality on a daily basis, you increase your self-awareness in the real world, which will affect your dream world, too.
Reality check meaning and purpose:
The reality checks are usually demanding you to observe and they require full consciousness.
Any sort of strange and odd visuals may symbolize that you are DREAMING which automatically will make you LUCID.
The result of reality checks is that you will know either you are dreaming or not since there are two possible results.
If you are awake, your surrounding, your abilities, and your self-are going to be normal.
However, in a dream, the things are a bit different (perhaps odd or supernatural).
You may suddenly be able to fly, you may be able to push a finger through your finger palm, or it could be impossible to tell the time/or to read something.
The truth is that reality checks can be tricky, too… so keep reading in order to find out how to do them right!
2. How to remember to do reality checks in dreams? (the scientific PROOF on how reality checks work!)
You dream about what you have been thinking about or what you have been doing in waking life.
Your personality in dreams is the same as your personality in waking life.”
Michael Schredl, a psychologist at the Central Institute of Mental Health from Germany, was curious if there was a delay between an event occurring in waking life and the appearance of this event in a dream – a phenomenon known as “dream lag”.
He examined studies that estimated how long it took to a waking life event to show up in someone’s dream.
The examinations proved that people were expected to dream about an event the night after it happened, whereafter from the 2nd to the 5th days, the probability of dreaming about it decreased.
Nevertheless, on the 6th and 7th day, the likelihood of incorporating the event into the dream increased.
This occurred if this life event was something that happened naturally, like having an argument with a partner, or it was something that happened as part of the study, such as being forced to watch a violent film.
For more details and studies on the topic, check the study /link above/.
3. How to perform reality checks properly?
A reality check requires a few important elements, in order to be successful:
You need to acknowledge the importance of a reality check (we hope that you already did by reading the previous part)
You have to perform them correctly
Take a moment of realization with a comprehensive examination: a simple question, and an “impossible” pre-determined action
So in order to PERFORM THEM PROPERLY YOU NEED TO DO THIS:
STEP 1: Full awareness
When you perform your reality checks you must shift your awareness completely and only on them.
So, for a minute, do not think and do anything, but simply shift your awareness and focus on your surroundings and on the specific reality check.
STEP 2: Build a habit
As we mentioned, by building up a habit of doing reality checks often, you will gradually start paying closer attention to everyday life.
You will transfer the reality check into your dream world.
That means you HAVE TO to them every day, a number of times. Preferably, every 2-3 hours.
” But why so often? What if I forgot? ” – then you will make your lucid dream journey much harder.
TRY THIS TIP:
Put an alarm to ring every second hour and to remind you to do a reality check.
This is important at least at the beginning.
When you became better, you can reduce them, but of course, that doesn’t mean that you can completely stop with your reality checks.
Also, it will be already a habit for you to do them so it won’t be a hustle.
STEP 3: A state of a doubt
We often perceive the reality and our daily life as something usual that we are in control of and that we recognize.
The truth is that this is exactly why we can’t figure out while we are in the dream.
So if we spend our days, “knowing” we are awake, we will do the same in dreams.
By simply doubting our reality we increase our awareness both in the waking and the dream world.
If you don’t understand these aspects, most likely you won’t have the proper awareness which will make reality checks almost useless.
4. When is the BEST TIME to perform reality checks?
Like we mentioned already if you do a reality check every 2 hours by the end of the day that will end with APPROXIMATELY 8 reality checks
(IF we consider that you woke up at 9 in the morning and you went to bed at 11 in the evening).
Otherwise, you can CHOOSE a convenient time when you want to do your reality check.
By that we mean: you can do it after a REGULAR everyday activity, and use this normal action as a reminder, such as looking at the time, drinking a glass of water, looking at yourself in the mirror and similar situations.
In that way, you won’t forget to make your reality checks, since you will do them every time after you do a usual ordinary action (like the mentioned examples above and below).
+ tips on HOW TO REMEMBER TO DO THEM:
1. AFTER EVERY TIME YOU LOOK AT A POSSESSION YOU HAVE (”TOTEM”)
– for instance, if you are wearing a ring or a bracelet, every time you look at it, you can practice the reality check
2. AFTER YOU LOOK AT YOUR PHONE
– perhaps, you are doing this a bit more often, (it is normal we all do 😀 ) so after a few times of looking at your mobile phone, do your reality check
3. AFTER EACH TIME YOU GO TO THE TOILET
– no need for explanation here, just do your thing, and after that, you know what to do *reality checking*
Basically, you can choose the reminder to be anything that you are doing at least a few times throughout your daily life.
5. Examples with the 10 most effective reality checks
These REALITY CHECKS will test your reality with a physical action (to yourself or the world).
1. Try to read
– a sentence that you find in a book, article, paper, notebook, anything. Try to read it a second time.
If it changes somehow, well you are dreaming.
If you are not able to read it at all, again, you are in the dream world.
2. Plug your nose and try to breathe through it
– it is a good technique, however people reported that sometimes they were fooled, and even though they were stopping the air through their nose, in a few seconds they weren’t able to breathe.
Afterward, they woke up and it turned out that actually, they were dreaming the whole time.
So after all, if you don’t give it a try, you won’t find out if it will/won’t work for you.
3. Finger palm push
-if you are dreaming, your finger will go either through your palm or when you touch your palm you won’t feel anything.
Either way, it will feel strange, which will lead you to the realization that you are dreaming and you to become lucid.
4. Tattoo check
– if you have tattoos, look at them and see if they are there and if they changed or not.
Of course, if they are different any anyway, or if they are more or less, you are dreaming!
5. Bite your tongue and see if it hurts
– if you can not really feel the pain, then you are in the dream world!
6. Looking at the mirror
– we mentioned that this one could be used to remind you to do the actual reality check, however, it can be used as a reality check too.
You might notice weird things about yourself or in your surrounding
7. Put your hand on the wall
– this is a fun one! If your hand goes through the wall… you will know that this is definitely not the real world!
8. Light switch
– when you press a light switch if the light does not turn off (or on), you should be dreaming (or you need to contact an electrician)
9. Look at your hands
– your hands usually look weird when we dream, so by looking at your hands, you can figure out if you’re dreaming or not
10. Look the time
– another one that could be used as a reminder but also as an actual reality check.
In a dream, it is often difficult to read characters and numbers because the area of the brain responsible for those tasks is shut down.
However, in some cases, some people can actually see the time. So just try it and see if you are one of them.
6. Do they always work?
That is the tricky part… Sometimes they don’t work. And It is normal for reality checks to fail from time to time.
That doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong, it is just that sometimes our mind tricks us.
Also, be sure to do each reality check more than once.
Sometimes they fail the first time but then they work from the next try.
The idea is to find a set of reality checks that work for you almost every time.
There are really all kinds of different ones, so simply use your creativity and think of a few reality checks, then experiment and figure out which ones you can trust the most.
7. Final Tips (Must Do’es for faster results!)
1. Dream journal
A dream journal is another essential step that you should take into consideration.
By simply writing in detail each morning the dreams that you had, in just a few weeks you will be able to see a huge difference in your dream recall!
Most importantly, you will be able to remember the dreams much better, so they will start getting more vivid – they will look more ”alive”, with more colors and much more details.
2. Meditation
Dream Yoga is the original form of lucid dreaming – it is a high meditation practice.
A quite broad but basic rule is: constantly compare your dreams to waking reality and know what it feels like to be conscious.
You will find it easier to induce lucid dreaming since your self-awareness will improve!
Furthermore, meditators have been found to have very high levels of lucidity in sleep.
3. Lucid dreaming technique
It is also good to combine reality checks with a lucid dreaming technique!
That will drastically increase the chances of becoming lucid in your dream!
You can choose between:
4. Other lucid dreaming triggers
Food
Because of the nutrient content of some foods, some can potentially enhance and increase your dreams, furthermore, they can boost your dream recall!
Lucid dreaming pills
Some supplements, such as melatonin, vitamin B6 and galantamine can help you to:
– Reach higher vividness and lucid dreams
– Improve your dream recall
– Increase the saturation of your dreams
– Find more sense behind your dreams
– Become more aware while you are dreaming!
Find some of the most effective vitamins and supplements here!
Binaural Beats
Binaural beats can be used for so many purposes.
Most importantly, studies have shown what kind of impacts, closely related to lucid dreaming, you may feel while listening to binaural beats:
– increased mindfulness
– better sleep
– enhanced focus on the inner world
– visual hypnagogia (seeing colors, patterns, and shapes) and audial hypnagogia (hearing voices)
– out-of-body experiences
– higher consciousness awareness
– higher chances of lucid dreaming
Find a guide on How to induce lucid dreaming with binaural beats!
Best info on this topic I’ve ever read. Thanku for sharing!