What are the best reality checks for lucid dreaming?

Do you remember the last scene of the movie Inception, where Cobb / Leonardo Di Caprio pulls out his personal totem, a spinning top?

The totem is a personal item used by the movie characters to determine whether they are dreaming or not.

In other words, the totem works as a reality check!

In this article, I am going to explore the best reality checks for lucid dreaming. By reading this blog post, you will learn about:

• What a reality check is and why it is important
• What the best reality checks are
• Tips for your reality tests

If you want to learn more about lucid dreaming, make sure you check the following articles:

• What is lucid dreaming?
• Lucid dreaming vs regular dreaming
• How to lucid-dream
• Levels of lucid dreaming
• Lucid dreaming masks

And now, let's discover the best reality checks for lucid dreaming!

The best reality checks for lucid dreaming: general questions

What is a reality check in lucid dreaming?

A reality check, or checking or testing, is a test to determine whether you are dreaming or you are awake.

In literature it is often referred to as the Reality Test method (RT):

The Reality Test method (RT), is one of a lucid dream induction approaches where a person trains specific cognitive tasks during the day to better differentiate between their sleep and waking state during subsequent dreaming. The RT method is designed to increase metacognition by habitual training of the mind to purposefully keep noticing one’s awareness state (1)(source: iomcworld.org).

Why is it important?

Reality testing is important because it helps you learn how to induce lucid dreams.

It does so by clarifying whether you are in a dream state or not:

It may happen that, while dreaming, the dreamer believes they are awake, and therefore skip reality checking. For that reason, lucid dreamers are told to never be sure, and therefore perform reality checks even when they are certain they are awake. When they least expect it, they find themselves in a dream (2)(source: lucid.fandom.com).

What makes a good reality check?

A good reality checks needs to be one that is impossible to occur in the waking world, but possible in a dream state.

It needs to be unusual enough to make you realize that, if it is happening, then you are very likely to be dreaming.

How often should you use a reality check?

The general recommendation is to perform reality checks regularly, at least several times a day:

Some lucid dreamers have alarms on their watch or smartphone to remind them to reality test every hour or half hour (3)(source: luciddreamingmagazine.com).

The more regular you are with reality testing while awake, the more likely you are to perform reality checking in your dreams too.

Having said that, it's also important to focus on the quality of the reality checks rather than on the quantity.

How can I remember to do more reality checks each day?

You can set triggers to remind you to perform your reality checks.

Some good triggers are alarms on your phone or sticky notes around the house.

You can also draw something, like a symbol for example, on the back of your hand, to remind you to test your reality.

The best reality checks for lucid dreaming: the list

 

The following is a list of the most common reality checks for lucid dreaming:

Push your finger through your palm

This is a very handy reality check because it doesn't require the use of any additional object.

In real life, you cannot break the laws of physics.

This means that you cannot walk through a wall or pass through the floor.

At the same time, you cannot push your finger through your palm.

On the contrary, in a dream state the laws of physics can often be disregarded so it's likely that you will be able to push your finger through your palm.

LDers claim that 90% of the time your finger will pass straight through your palm, indicating you are dreaming (4)(source: independent.co.uk).

However, some experience lucid dreamers like Daniel Love from thelucidguide.com claim that the finger through palm reality test is not reliable.

How to push your finger through your palm

1. Press your index and / or middle finger through the center of your palm
2. If your finger passes through, then you are in a dream

An alternative to this reality test is trying to push your hand through the wall or floor.

In some dreaming states, you won't be able to push your finger through your palm (or your hand through the wall or floor).

For this reason, it's recommended to combine this reality check with a backup one.

Look at yourself in the mirror

This reality check is based on the principle that mirrors don't behave properly in dreams.

They have troubles with creating proper reflections.

If there is a mirror around, you can look at yourself in the mirror and see if what you see is what you expect.

Do you look differently? Do you look like yourself? Are some of your traits different from what they used to be?

It's also possible that the image in the dream might look blurry, misshape or distorted.

Looking in mirrors while lucid dreaming is not recommended for beginners.

Since mirrors don't behave properly in dreams, you could well see a disturbing or frightening image when looking into one.

If you really want to try this reality check, make sure you follow these 5 strategies when looking in a mirror while lucid dreaming.

How to look at yourself in the mirror

1. Find a mirror nearby
2. Look into it
3. If the image you see is dark, blurry, misshapen, doesn't match the objects around you, or if there is no image at all, then chances are you are dreaming

Although rare, it's possible that mirror reflections look correct in (some) dreams. For this reason, it's always best to combine this with another reality check as a backup.

Read a clock or watch

In a wake state, looking at a clock or watch is a very easy task.

It's not that easy to check the time when you are dreaming. 

Characters and numbers are difficult to read because in a dream state the area of the brain responsible for these tasks is shut down.

Using this reality check, the dreamer will look at the timepiece. If it is a dream, they may see one of the following effects (5)(source: lucid.fandom.com):

• The timepiece has no figures whatsoever.
• The timepiece has Arabic (i.e. rational) figures but they are rapidly changing or changing position.
• The timepiece has random, non-Arabic figures that may be static or dynamic.
• The display is dim, obscured, or blurry.
• The timepiece may be difficult to see, e.g. hidden.

How to look at a watch or clock

1. Make sure you follow the basic principles of reality checks
2. If you question whether you are dreaming or not, try to look at your watch or a clock nearby. If the numbers on the watch / clock appear odd or malformed, then you know that you are dreaming. If not, follow the next step
3. After looking at the watch / lock, look away and while looking away try to change the watch / clock by only using your will.
4. Look at the watch / clock again and see if there has been any changes.

Flip a coin

Flipping a coin is generally considered a very good reality checking.

In your waking life, flipping a coin means throwing the coin up in the air.

The coin will go up and rapidly come down while flipping.

In dreams, the coin you throw might go up for a very long time or come down and become a totally different object.

How to flip a coin

1. Find a coin
2. Throw it in the air
3. If the coin goes up and rapidly goes down, it's likely you are not dreaming
4. If the coin floats, rises up significantly higher than expected, or comes back down as a different object, then it's likely you are in a dream

Hold your breath (pinch your nose)

This is another very simple reality check. Like the finger through palm, it doesn't require an addition al object to be performed.

As you probably know, in real life you can hold your breath up to a certain point.

You need oxygen to live, so it's not possible to hold your breath for a very long period of time.

This is not true in dreams, where chances are you can hold your breath for as much as you long.

How to hold your breath

1. Hold your nose tight between your fingers, and keep your mouth closed
2. Try to breathe in through your nose
3. If you find that you can breathe in as usual, you are most likely dreaming.

Turn on / off a light switch

For some reasons, devices often don't work well in dreams.

A typical example is light switches.

When you are awake and press a light switch, you expect the light to turn on or off.

This punctually happens unless there is a problem with the switch.

In dreams, you might find that pressing a light switch might not result in the light turning on or off.

In the best case scenario, if the light switch actually works in your dream, you might notice that the light is dim or doesn't illuminate the surrounding area or it can be turned on but not off or vice versa.

Look at your hands

Apparently, the mind has problems with keeping thoughts or images static, unless there is an external stimulus such as vision.

For this reason, if you look at your hands while dreaming, they might look:

• Oddly shaped or deformed;
• Wrongly proportioned
• Odd
• With more or less fingers than you would expect

How to look at your hands

The best way to perform this reality test is the following:

1. Look at your hand
2. Look away
3. Look back at your hand and see if anything changed
4. Count your fingers
5. Move your hand away
6. Count your fingers again
7. Look at both the back and palm of your hand
8. Look at your hand more closely

Read a text

Similarly to what I wrote about reading a watch or clock, characters and numbers are difficult to read because in a dream state the area of the brain responsible for these tasks is shut down.

Due to the unstable nature of dreams, a text often fails to remain the same when you try to read or re-read it.

For this reason, reading a text could be a good reality test for many lucid dreamers.

How to read a text

1. Make sure you follow the basic principles of reality checks
2. If you question whether you are dreaming or not, try to read any text. If the text appears odd or malformed, then you know that you are dreaming. If not, follow the next step
3. After looking at the text, look away and while looking away try to change the text by only using your will.
4. Look at the text again and see if there has been any changes.

The best reality checks for lucid dreaming: Tips 

The following is a list of reality check tips for you to consider:

How to choose the best reality checks

When deciding on what reality checks to use, you want to consider two aspects:

1. Practicality - The chosen reality test(s) needs to be something that you can easily practice several times a day
2. Focus - It also needs to be something you can easily focus on

Look for dream signs

The following is considered a good practice for anybody who wants to use reality checks:

1. Compile a list of dream signs, or any theme that regularly occurs in your dreams
2. When something unusual, unexpected, or dreamlike occurs, perform your chosen reality checks.
3. Make sure each test is performed seriously and in full awareness: do not assume that you are awake.

Dream signs, however, vary greatly from person to person, and are often unique to a particular individual. However, frequent themes include (6)(source: lucid.fandom.com):

• Being in a particular location
• A character behaving oddly
• The presence of a certain object
• The presence of a character from the dreamer's past
• The presence of a character who is in real life dead (or completely non-existent)
• A particular inconsistency with the real world
• The presence of the dreamer's dream guide
• Having improved or supernatural body functions, including being able to function normally despite an impairment

Have a backup

It's always recommended to have a reality check backup in case the first test doesn't work.

A typical scenario would be you looking at your 18-finger hands and thinking that it's normal.

A backup reality check, for example reading a watch or text, could make up for the first error (7)(source: oniri.io).

Set targets

It's also a good idea to set targets and decide when you are going to perform a reality check each day.

It's a good habit to make a decision in the morning about how many times and when you are going to do a reality test.

Choose quality over quantity

Earlier I wrote that it's recommended to perform a number of reality tests daily.

While this stands true, it's also true or truer that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to reality testing.

Performing ten reality checks mindlessly every day won't be very helpful.

In order for this to work, you will need to be mindful and test your environment to see whether it's a dream or reality.

The best reality checks for lucid dreaming: References