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Hi, not sure if this post belongs here but...
Once you do reality checks for a while, does it become second nature to you? Is it like breathing or blinking. What I'm getting at: does it become part of you/do it without thinking?
Also I would like to hear general experiences with reality checks, how you managed to get in the routine of them etc...
Yes. That is the whole idea. You need to question reality so often that it is natural to the point that you even do it in your dreams.
I forgot to put in the post... what was your experience with reality checks Sivason? Were they difficult at first?
I'm not sure doing it without thinking would work so well, since you have to think about it to really question reality. But otherwise, yeah it can become a habit to do reality checks. It took a few years, but I am now starting to do them in my dreams like in waking life and I'm sometimes quite surprised to discover I'm dreaming. In my last lucid dream after I did a reality check I said to myself "I thought for sure I was awake."
I trained myself to reality check whenever something dreamlike happens, like when something stressful or unexpected occurs, or for specific dream signs. It takes a little while to get in the habit and remember to do this regularly. I tried a few things to remind me, like notes and a special necklace. But I don't seem to need that sort of thing anymore.
When I was highly motivated about two years ago (which I seem to have problems becoming nowadays for some reason - a "motivation dryspell", I guess) I noticed that I would actually feel excited and suspicious whenever I encountered my dreamsigns in waking life, and do a lot of different very serious reality checks.
I have had a few dreams when I have "known" I was "awake", so it's always a good idea to do reality checks if you feel even slightly unsure about your current state.
Its good to hear that it becomes a habit because I've been doing RC's on and off and not really kept it up for long periods of time. It seems there are so many methods for lucid dreaming, like its squeezing a little juice out of a big orange, if you see what I mean.
I guess I should resign myself to the fact that it might take a long long time to develop the habit. Or it might take a shorter time... maybe depends on the person.
Yeah it can take a good while for your RC habit to form. For me the trigger can at times come from a none thinking subconscious mind now but once the RC is performed you should think, becoming mindful when testing your reality because autopilot RC have a really bad success rate and suck I personally found.
For me a month or two and I seem to start doing them in some dreams. Well worth the effort when they start to pay off by showing up in some of my dreams, but don't think yes they work and slow or stop when you have achieved that was a trap I fell into a few times.
Like others the sometimes shocking feeling of counting my fingers and getting 6 or 7 on a hand after all these prior experiences I took to be so real! Sometimes doing a finger RC thinking.. I know its real life but, do it anyway and wow I get 8 fingers it pretty funny feeling because I was nearly 100% sure I wasn't dreaming.
I use a watch beep every hour, but that's just like a tiny booster to keep up with them, also looking out for times I would go without eg. talking to someone, busy shopping, its so easy to get caught up and lost in those situations so I work hard to target them. Also of course if weird random things happen or stuff not making sense.
Be before bed or after WBTB you can have a talk to your subconscious saying I will look at my hands and perform a reality check tonight.
I think there's a subtle but critical difference between "doing it so often it becomes natural" and "doing it without thinking." I think the questioning of your state must *always* be done with attention and mindfully, or it will not result in lucidity in dreams.