Is this my problem?

**Sugabombs** · 04-13-2011 08:36 PM

I dream a lot every night but I never have an LD. I tried for a long time to have my watch as a reality check. I looked at my watch every time I entered a building or walked past a mirror. I thought this would help with waking up in the dream. But it didn't. I did look at my watch in the dream but I didn't "wake up".

I seem to have a huge problem noticing my dream signs. From time to time I literally think inside the dream. I notice something in the dream and I find myself thinking "Hmm I have to call my mom and tell her about that later." or something along those lines. So I'm actually quite aware of what's going on in the dream but I don't notice anything strange to set me off into thinking that it just might be a dream.

Now... I have a theory as to why I don't "wake up". I daydream a lot, and I'm not good at ADA (all-day-awareness). Mindfulness isn't my strong point.
Can this be my problem or do I just have to do more reality checks or something?

**Matte87** · 04-13-2011 08:42 PM

I think you need to change the way you're doiung RC's. Make sure you are very critical to things around you and what you experience when you do one. Don't just check your watch and decide it's not a dream. Take a full minute to check if you're awake by different kinds of RC's and using all your senses including your memory.

Try MILD with WBTB, it's a great combo

good luck!

**sloth** · 04-13-2011 09:50 PM

What he said.

It is easy for a bad habit to form, and you can get accustomed to checking your watch and saying the words, "Not a dream" without actually thinking about it.

**imj** · 04-14-2011 11:11 AM

Do your RCs when you wake up from dreams. It's more effective when you have more than 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. If I'm not wrong your dream frequency usually shoots up after that much sleep in the night which means your interval between dreams is much shorter and also means you no longer go through sleep stages 3 and 4 which is deep sleep the 'erasure stage' of sleep. So chances are you wake up from a morning dream then do the RC and think about it doing it in your mind, the idea will probably get into REM because you would be going into REM while having the idea of RCing.

IMJ