What is Reality Checking? 10 Reality Checks to Stimulate Lucid Dreaming

What is reality checking?

One of the ways to increase your likelihood of having lucid dreams is to perform reality checks.

In terms of lucid dreaming, reality checking involves asking yourself if you are dreaming at various times during the day. The idea is that by doing this during the day, you're awareness of the difference between reality and the dream world will be increased while you're sleeping. You may find yourself performing a reality check in your dream. The realisation that you are dreaming and can therefore do and be pretty much anything is amazing and well-worth the effort of training your mind to spot evidence of dreaming.

10 Reality Checks to Stimulate Lucid Dreaming

More detail on of these later, but for now, have a look at these common ways of checking reality.

1. Breathe - Can you pinch your nose and still breathe? In dreams, I breathe underwater. 

2. Jump - When you jump, do you float gently down again, or does your money just fall out of your pockets?

3. Fly - Flying is the commonest thing for people to attempt when they first start lucid dreaming. Well, at any stage of lucid dreaming. Flying is great. So this is a good reality-check for fun reasons alone. Can you fly or levitate at will?

4. Read - Look at a sentence. Look away. Now read it again. Is it the same sentence? If not, what did your dream just tell you?

5. Look around - How far can you see? Are colours the same as usual or is everything brighter, or almost monochrome. Are objects distorted or blurred?

6. Hand - Can you push your hand through a solid surface?

7. Time - A bit like reading text, reading a clock face or digital watch in a dream can be tricky.

8. Palms - Examine the palms of your hands, check out those lines. Do they look normal? Are they even your hands? Argh!

9. Mirrors - You're beautiful, but does your reflection look normal?

10. Maths - Many people find maths tricky in waking life. Apparently, they don't stand a chance in dreams, though I've not checked this one out myself. Give it a go. Can you perform simple addition or subtraction?

Can you add your own to the list? If so, let me know what you come up with.