Thread: Hi there - I'm new

Hi, I am brand new to lucid dreaming and haven't really started anything yet. I wanted to try this as a way to deal with frequent nightmares and other upsetting dreams. I can usually remember more than one dream a night, so that part is going well. A few questions to start-

The other day I was reading about reality checks for the first time. That night, my dream self looked at my hands and thought, "All my fingers are there, so I must not be dreaming, even though they are blurry." Is it possible to know if I really came to that conclusion while dreaming or if I couldn't have changed it either way? It's kind of hard to explain.

My other question is that sometimes in my dreams, I don't really feel myself there. It's kind of like watching a movie, but I don't even feel myself standing there watching. Anyone know anything about those types of dreams?

Thanks a lot for your time.