I've been giving a lot more attention to the nature of reality lately, not just the reality checks but thinking about what I'm experiencing and how would I know if it was a simulation, etc. It's pretty heavy stuff to think about, but it's been on my mind lately and I'm hoping that helps me to notice when things are "not quite right" in a dream.

As an anecdote: The other night I had a dream that had some children in it that looked like 3-dimensional cartoons, kinda like the new CG version of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters. I realized only after I woke up that I should've taken notice of the fact that they looked unlike human beings and unlike every other person in the dream, but of course at the time I didn't give them a second glance and took their appearance at face value. Good grief!

On the other hand, I was happy because I actually had details in the dream that weren't murky or cloudy, and I was able to remember them upon waking.

Dreams are tricky, hahaha.