Reality checks are a useful tool in learning how to have lucid dreams. Performing a reality check is simple: ask yourself a question, such as "Am I dreaming?" or "Is this a dream?", and then use a specific action to test whether you are awake or dreaming. In previous posts, I've described a handful of simple and effective reality checks, such as attempting to levitate yourself a few feet above the ground or to use your mind to change the color of the walls.
But, there are some reality checks that don't work. There are even a few that will have the opposite effect, working to convince you that you're not dreaming even when you really are. Because of this, it's important to know ahead of time which reality checks will help you and which will only hinder you instead.
Here is a list of reality checks to avoid:
Pinching yourself
How many times have you heard the expression "I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming"? You've probably come across this so-called reality check often in novels, but it's woefully unreliable. The idea that we don't feel physical sensations in our dreams is a myth. Many people don't just feel physical sensations, they also feel physical pain within their dreams.
If you're dreaming and decide to pinch yourself, one of two things will happen: you will feel the physical pain, or your mind will convince you that you felt it. In either case, you'll believe you're awake even when you're dreaming.
Asking other people if you're dreaming
If you suspect you might be dreaming, one of the worst things you can do is ask the other characters in your dream. They will inevitably tell you "No, you're not dreaming." In fact, they'll usually do everything they can to convince you it's not a dream.
Sometimes the simple act of asking other dream characters whether or not you're dreaming can provoke a strong reaction. Ryan over at Dream Studies describes an incident when a crowd of dream characters responded to him by yelling "No, no, no, it's not true." This is a common reaction. In my experience, the figures in your dreams believe wholeheartedly that they're as real as you are.
Flipping light switches on and off
If you've seen Waking Life, you probably remember the advice the movie's main character received: "If you think you're dreaming, flip a light switch on and off. If the lights behave normally, you're awake. If not, you're dreaming."
This method is not reliable. Shortly after seeing the movie, I tried the technique many times just to find out if there was any truth to it. Most often, the light switches in my dreams behaved exactly as they were supposed to.
The most important thing a reality check can do is provide reliable results. If it doesn't do that, you'll never be able to know with any certainty whether you're dreaming or not. Since the light switch technique doesn't provide consistent results, it shouldn't be used as a reality check.
The totem method from Inception
In the movie Inception, the characters use totems to perform reality checks. The totems are small objects they've personally crafted so only they know the precise feel, weight, and behavior of the object. The main character, Dom Cobb, uses a spinning top. If the top wobbles and falls over, he knows he's awake. If it keeps spinning for an unnaturally long time, he knows he's in a dream. One of the other characters, Arthur, uses a weighted die as his totem. He's the only one who knows exactly how it feels and how it should roll.
While the film has prompted some of the most heated debate I've seen in a long time about reality versus dreaming – thanks in part to the behavior of Cobb's spinning top – its totem method unfortunately won't work for us.
If your mind knows how something works in waking life, there's a good chance that thing will behave the same way in your dreams. Nine times out of ten, a spinning top will wobble and topple over in your dream just as it would while you're awake. That makes the results of this technique inconsistent and unreliable (which stinks, because the totem idea is just plain cool).
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, in so far as the totem method in the movie it’s used as a means to determine if you’re in someone else’s dreams. As you said in your own it wouldn’t work; however if you are the target of extraction you wouldn’t normally be in your own dream.
Hi Nina,
You’re right — in the movie, the totems are used to help a person determine if he/she is in someone else’s dream rather than in his/her own dream. In this post, I was exploring whether or not the totems would work for real lucid dreamers rather than fictional movie characters, since at this point we haven’t discovered a way to jump into someone else’s dream. (There’s some interesting information out there about shared dreaming being possible, but mutual dreaming is not an event most people have ever experienced.)
It definitely would be exciting if some of the details in Inception eventually become a reality and we develop technology that allows us to share dreams so easily. Of course, that technology would bring with it many gray areas about consensual dream sharing versus invading someone else’s dream the way the characters did in Inception
~ Kris
I just saw Inception, and I’m thinking of keeping a piece of glass or a mirror in my pocket. Then I can try and see if my finger goes through the glass. Sticking my finger through windows/mirrors has been a pretty successful reality check for me lately.
What’re your thoughts on that?
Hi Travis,
That sounds like a great reality check. I love using mirrors for all sorts of things in my dreams, so using them as a reality check always comes in handy. Carrying around a compact mirror in your pocket is a great idea. I’d also incorporate a handful of other reality checks too just to have all your bases covered whenever you’re in a dream with no windows or mirrors.
~ Kris
I read somewhere (somewhen) that one could not read text/print since that utilizes a different area of the brain then the imagination/dream side. So, just try to read a sign or book or newspaper and see if it is readable.
d’uh
it is also part of your main post/reference link on ‘easy ways to test’…
Hi net97surferx,
Using text is one of my favorite reality checks. I read all the time and live in a house full of books, so books tend to find their way into my dreams quite often. That makes it handy for me to use text as a reality checking device. Street signs and the signs on storefronts or office buildings also work well, but I seem to have the best luck with books.
~ Kris
I’ve had 3 lucid dreams since I knew what lucid dreams were:
1. I got too excited and woke up in a few seconds
2. I tried to fly and got stuck in the corner of the room! LOL!
3. Again, got too excited and woke up
Anyway, back to totems: So buying a water proof digital watch and constantly wearing it – I can use that as my test? Does that count as a totem? …. I supposed if I managed to make the display go crazy but stay the same always, so it wasn’t alphas or numerics, just a jumbled digital display – but that I know what it looks like – that would be a totem right? And it should work?
Of course I could just use a standard digital watch – but that wouldn’t be a totem and as you said – totems ARE cool!
@Add Dry — When I had my first lucid dream, the same thing happened. I got too excited and woke up. The same thing happened again the second time around. It’s tough to stay calm enough not to wake yourself up, especially when you’ve been working so hard to have a lucid dream and it finally happens.
Regarding the digital watch, you could wear one and use it as a reality check without having to fiddle with the display. Printed text and digital text often wiggles or morphs into other text when you look at it in a dream. So, if you wear a digital watch all the time and make a habit of using it for a reality check several times throughout the day, eventually you’ll find yourself checking your watch in a dream and the digital display will act strangely and you’ll realize you’re dreaming. Here are some more details about using text and numbers for a reality check.
~ Kris
Just last night I had a dream in which I was actually IN the movie Inception. It was the scene in which Ariadne and Dom are in the cafe in Paris, right before when the walls start to explode. I was sitting at a different table and I was watching them, and I also remember some bizarre things that happened, but the whole time, I didn’t become lucid. It was strange, because they were actually TALKING about the fact that they were in a dream (I’ve seen the movie enough times to have the dialouge practically memorized) and yet I didn’t realize I was in a dream myself.
I’m usually very good at remembering my dreams, and I’ve been performing reality checks while I’m awake for a while, but I still find it very hard to become lucid in a dream. Is there anything else I can try?
Hi Kara,
There are definitely other things you can try beyond doing reality checks. I perform reality checks throughout the day but I also use a handful of other techniques that are quick and easy to do, and those techniques make a big difference. When I do them regularly, I sometimes have lucid dreams every night, but when I stop doing any techniques at all the frequency sometimes drops off to about once per week.
Check out part 10 and part 11 of the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming on this site. Those parts of the series describe specific things you can do to help you become lucid in your dreams.
~ Kris
One good way of keeping yoo lucid in a dream iz to look at your handz or feet. Itz az if it wakes you up even more but pulls you into the dream rather than pushez yoo out. Like getting a grip on yureself enough to hold yureself in the lucid dreaming state.
I have a sister who has been experiencing head pain after having a dream about being in her own home and waking to experience exactly whay she felt in her dream. The pain is targeted in the same spot every time, and every time she talks to me about it she gets emotional about the subject. It appears to be very painful when she experiences it. Now, I’ve just now started reading the articles printed on here and within other sites and i have found this:..The uncanny ability for others the study this and the ablility for others tho share about it,,but when it comes down to it,,not ONE of you have answered the question…”Why?”…..maybe this can push the subject a little further, or is there something you folks are not speaking of. In any case, I’d like to tell my sister that i can help, but even as a 10+ yrs semi-experienced meditation practitioner, i still come to no conclusions for her. Well Met, Mike W..New Orleans area, Louisiana.
Hi Mike,
My first suggestion would be for her to see a neurologist about the head pain, especially since she’s feeling pain in the same spot each time. It’s possible there’s a physical problem underlying the pain.
Sometimes when we’re ill or injured, our mind incorporates that pain into our dreams. This can happen even when a person isn’t already aware of having an illness or injury. The mind sometimes uses our dreams as a way to alert us about the problem. Nobody really knows how or why the mind is able to do that, but it happens quite often. A friend of mine recently had several dreams in which she experienced pain in her ankle. The dreams were different each time but she always experienced the pain in the same spot. She later found it she had a tiny fracture in that same area.
~ Kris
A mention on the totem trick. It might work for the top if you try to keep it spinning. If you’re in the dream and trying to keep it spinning and it does (and you don’t have the ability to perform psychokinesis) the top should keep spinning. IRL wise, it won’t as gravity will say just plain no. Then again, there is a chance that your dream will know what you are trying to do and will over influence your influence and prevent you from realizing you’re dreaming. Still, give it a shot, it might be cool to try. I have to get me a top though….
I love this site! When I was younger, I was able to dream lucidly several times a week by willing myself to fly. Now that I’m older and have a draining career, it’s far more difficult. Does sleep deprivation affect our ability to dream lucidly? I notice that in the summer, when I’m not teaching, planning lessons, preparing materials, and grading papers, I remember several dreams each night clearly. I might even have one or two lucid dreams in the summer as I sleep more. I’m working on sleeping more and meditating more during the school year, though I could use some advice on how to enhance my dream life during the school year.
It might be odd, but I can read in my dreams, though I haven’t always remembered, upon waking, exactly what I had read. I wonder if a good first step to return to lucid dreaming might be to tell myself that I will fly in my dreams and at least do that consistently. Then, as I complete this act in dream life, I can move to a whole nuther level to lucidity.
Is it possible to use this as a trigger when I don’t feel free in real life, though?
I’ve found this site very helpful, but i have a question about my totem. I’ve had this tuning fork for a long time and i usually take it out of my pocket(its always on me) and hit it on my knee and listen to the A natural note. If not familiar with a tunning fork, its like a metal stick split at an end and pulled apart. when the fork is hit against a hard surface, it rings/hums/vibarates, the A natural note. Would my tunning fork work as a reality check or totem?
Hi Austin,
I’m not sure whether the tuning fork would work as a reality check or not. The purpose of a reality check is to determine whether or not you’re dreaming. You test certain things that behave differently in dreams than they do in waking life. (For example, if you try to levitate off the ground in a dream, it works. If you try to do it while you’re awake, it doesn’t work.)
So the question is, what does the tuning fork do differently in your dreams that it doesn’t do while you’re awake? If it behaves the same way in a dream as it does in waking life, it can’t be used for a reality check. Does it make a different sound when you use it in a dream compared to the sound it makes when you use it while awake? Does it do that consistently? (i.e., every time you use it while you’re awake it rings at A natural, but every time you use it in a dream it rings at some other note.)
The reality check would only work if the tuning fork behaved differently in dreams. If it doesn’t behave differently, there’s nothing unusual to signal you that you’re dreaming. If it does behave differently in your dreams, in order to use it for a reality check you’ll probably need to carry it around with you and strike it several times each day. Each time you strike it, you’ll need to pay attention to how it behaves and ask yourself “Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?” If you do this five or six times a day, it will get your mind into the pattern of using the tuning fork often and the habit will find its way into your dreams too. Eventually you’ll find yourself using the tuning fork in a dream and it will ring at a different note and you’ll realize you’re dreaming.
~ Kris
Hi Marion,
I think sleep deprivation can certainly affect our ability to have lucid dreams. I’ve been going through a period of major sleep deprivation for the past few months and it definitely has affected the quality of my dreams. I’ve had fewer lucid dreams, and my dream recall hasn’t been as good as usual either. During times when I’ve managed to get a few good nights of sleep in a row, I have more lucid dreams.
Regarding using flying as a lucid dream trigger, it might be worthwhile on both counts for you to use that as your goal. You’ll have a good trigger to work with for lucidity, but at the same time the dreams of flying might also help you feel more free. I think dreams work both ways. We feel free so we dream of things like flying that embrace that feeling of freedom, but it also works in reverse — we dream of flying and of other things that represent freedom, and when we awaken we bring some of that feeling into our waking lives. We feel a bit less stifled than we did the night before.
~ Kris
I’m just starting to research lucid dreaming. As far as the totem idea goes what do you think of the pro’s and cons of this: An object that you attempt to change through reality checks. Let’s take a coin for example. In reality you look at this coin and it is a normal coin. You clasp the coin in your hand and make yourself believe it is now a double-sided coin, showing “heads” on both sides. You look at it again and of course it is still a normal coin. In the dream state the second time you look at the coin do you think that you could will it to change? Do you think this could work with other objects? Attempting to change physical features in a dream in order to determine reality? Am I making sense?
Hi Kolby,
I think a technique like that can be effective. I sometimes use a more simplified version of it: I try to use my mind to change the color of the walls or floor of whatever room I’m in. If it works, I know I’m dreaming. If it doesn’t work, I can usually assume I’m not dreaming (but I typically try one other reality check just to be sure).
By using a coin for a reality check like you described, you’d be tying the reality check to a specific object and would be making a habit of checking that object many times throughout the day. That tends to make for a decent reality check because handling an object so much in waking life usually triggers the object to eventually show up in your dreams. But, I also recommend using other objects that are almost always in your dreams — walls, floors, doors, etc. (or trees, the sky, clouds, etc., if most of your dreams take place outdoors). That way, your trigger for a reality check is guaranteed to show up in at least one dream every night.
I also recommend finding out what your own personal dream symbols are (the items that already show up in your dreams all the time that you might not realize yet) and using one of those to trigger your reality checks. For example, I dream about water all the time. It shows up in one form or another in almost every dream I have, but I didn’t realize that until I started keeping a dream journal. After I learned about it, I decided I’d use water to trigger my reality checks. Now every time I see water of any kind, even just a puddle in the street, I ask myself if I’m dreaming and I perform a reality check. If you work with what your mind is already doing, it can speed up the process and you’ll have an even easier time becoming lucid.
thanx for the responses “~kris~ and others. I just received a notice in the e-mail stating there was a comment on the issue lol, but none the less, i’m back here again. She hasn’t received any weird dreams lately that i know. She notifies me of almost everything that happens to her with-in dreams or reality. I asked her to log every event, so that she can compare her experiences. As for seeing a Neurologist, I simply cant afford to send her. So we will see how this works out for now. Thanks again
Wow thanks for the tip im new to all these things im trying to learn how to become a lucid dreamer but im still trying to learn how to remember my dreams its going ok i know with time ill get better but i found this article really helpful because there are alot of site that give you theses exact tips to help to do your reality checks in your dreams and this whole site is very interesting (and sounds pretty legit) im glad i found it..
I’m not an experienced lucid dreamer, but have on three different occasions asked my dreams characters if I was dreaming. All three times I was answered “yes” in unison (there was always at least two people present). I realize it’s not a reliable reality test, but it has worked for me. Just thought I’d share that…
Hi Mish,
That’s a great thing because it sounds like your dreaming mind is encouraging you to become lucid. It’s wonderful when your dreaming mind not only cooperates but actively encourages lucidity, especially since for many people it’s the opposite and their mind is working hard to convince them they’re not dreaming.
If the characters in your dreams are encouraging you to realize you’re dreaming, that’s definitely a boon. If it happens in another dream, it might be worth asking them other questions too just to have fun and see what answers you get. Whenever I run into a dream character who encourages lucidity, I try to ask him/her questions like “Do you have something to tell me?” or “What should I do in this dream?” Sometimes the answers are fascinating.
~ Kris
I have never engaged in any active attempts at lucid dreaming, but I have had them. I have heard of the test of attempting to read something, before, but in my dreams, I can read. Is that indicative of any particular abnormality or just uncommon, generally speaking?
Hey, well what do you guys think of this? I’ve been trying to have a lucid dream for a while and I recently saw the move inception (best movie ever) and like many of you I thought the totem idea was ingenious. But instead of something physical I thought of an item that would only appear when I’m dreaming. The item was a sundial that you put around you’re wrist. And when I went to sleep I saw the sundial on my wrist and realized that having I was dreaming. But a couple minutes later I got excited and woke up :p
Before that I thought of a rope that is tied to my waist which is connected to reality but it was annoying so I thought of the sundial watch.
But anyway what do you guys think of it?
About totems: when you do something enough in the non-dreaming state, it will eventually work its way into the dream state. If you spin a top and it falls over in the real world, you know you arent dreaming. however, if you spin that top in a dream state and it still falls over, you can still figure out that you are dreaming. Not because the top told you so, but because every time that you spin the top in the real world, you question whether or not you’re dreaming. That should carry over into the dream state and cause you to question reality, even if the top should fall.
Thoughts?
@Dreamer19, that’s true as long as you don’t use the falling/not-falling of the top as your indicator of whether or not you’re dreaming. If you spin the top several times per day and use that action as your trigger to question reality, it can prompt you to perform other reality checks instead of relying on the top to determine if you’re dreaming. If you do it often enough, you’ll eventually find yourself spinning the top in a dream and will realize you’re dreaming.
But, instead of creating a brand new totem and having to condition yourself to dream about it, I usually recommend reviewing your dream journal to find things that already show up in your dreams all the time and then using those things as your cues to perform a reality check. I use water as one of my cues because water shows up in my dreams all the time. Whenever I see water in any form, I perform a reality check. A friend of mine uses her cat as a cue because the cat already shows up in at least 75% of her dreams. When you track your dreams in a journal for a few weeks or months, it’s amazing how many little cues you’ll discover are already there for you to begin using right away.
~ Kris
Actually, I’ve found that if I have the slightest notion that I’m dreaming while I’m in a dream I suddenly realize I am dreaming simply because the thought entered my head. I suppose that this happens because you do the math without realizing. Be honest, if you’re awake you pretty much know it if you ask yourself if you’re awake. If you don’t, then you have some really vivid and strong dreams. My dreams (all that I can remember) tend to be slightly blurry and I can always tell them apart from real life memories. Also, the memories of a few of my lucid dreams are always blurry around the edges except when I specifically declare to the dream that I want a lucid improvement like shouting out ‘Increase lucidity now!’ So, I believe that anything that makes you question your state while dreaming will in turn without much thought cause you to realize you’re dreaming. The hard part, initiating that first ‘Am I dreaming?’
@kris oh, so all I have to do is to find a reacurring element that appears in most of my dreams and use that as a trigger? Sounds good.
Hey, I have another question. are there any exercises that I can do before I go to sleep that would help me create a lucid dream?
Kris – It seemed that way at first, but lately I’ve been having a lot more lucid dreams than I ever have and things have changed a bit. If I ask a complete stranger, they lie to me. If I ask someone I trust in the waking world, they’re honest with me. It seems as if the more often I question if I’m dreaming (while dreaming), the more challenges my dreams throw at me. It’s really odd, like it was taking it easy on me at first. Also, every time I was lied to I didn’t believe it. I knew I was being lied to, because the dream character would respond with a casual “no”. If I were awake, I’m pretty sure if I asked anyone that question they’d probably react as if I were a nutcase.
There are some brainwave entrainment mp3 which claims to help induce lucid dreams. Does this work? Will it affect or do harm to our brain in long term if listening to it for a long period of time?
@ristinw – Some brainwave entrainment MP3s work, but many of them don’t. There are a couple of great companies offering MP3s but there are also a lot of cheap imitations that have no effect, so it’s important to make sure you choose one from a reputable company.
I recommend the Dreamwalk Program from the Immrama Institute. I contributed to the development and testing of that program and I can personally vouch for its effectiveness. It comes with MP3s, software, and some other items.
~ Kris
Most of my dreams are either first person or third person, if I’m in them at all. Most of the time it’s like I’m watching a movie. What could I use for a reality check in those dreams? Also, I had a first person dream where I did a reality check and it said I wasn’t dreaming, why is that?
Thanks for all information on lucid dreaming. I always wear a hairband on my wrist. Is there a reality check I can do with that?
A totem would work if you carry it at all times and when ever you see it or feel it or notice it do a reality check, randomly doing reality checks may work but if you connect it to an item that you would encounter everyday like a totem it would make it very possible to make every dream you see it in a lucid dream. Im testing this i just need to find a good totem that i wont mind carrying everywhere.
i was just wondering if lucid dreaming makes you question reality whilst in the real world….because if you are always testing if it is a dream whilst dreaming..wouldnt it make you have to always double check in the real world?
I went to the new age store and bought a “wand”. The wand has appeared in my dreams twice now. In real life the wand does nothing. In the dream it grants me the ability to control/modify the dream and/or physics. This is my “totem”.
Hey there. I’ve really been wanting to Lucid Dream, I’ve kept a dream journal and everything, I’ve even figured out a dream signal I have. Anyways, Inception has given me an idea. If I keep something with me at all times, say a dice in my pocket, and everytime I take it out of my pocket/touch it, I perform a reality check, do you think that in my dreams I would carry the dice with me, and be able to perform a reality check?
Hi im ryan, when i was younger i used to lucid dream nearly every time i went to sleep from the ages of 4 to about 12 i am now fifteen and have refocused on lucid dreaming because i have gotten deep in philsophical expierences and a dream would be a great other worldly medium so i had another lucid dream and i recently saw waking life i already knew i was dreaming just by knowing that i went to sleep but i didnt wake up in the same room i was in a different realm or place where i could fly and do anything so i knew i was dreaming so i decided to flick off a lightswitch and it turned but i was positive i was dreaming i just thought it was odd because its supposed to be reliable tips at all to lucid dreaming
Very nice article and site. I have often dreams where I sit in front of the computer while having valid real time conversations in chat with friends, especially on facebook. Some of these dreams have been so real, that I have confronted some of my friends who I confronted inside my dreams with these “issues”..only to find out I had been dreaming. I do not dream lucid, and I am bad at remembering dreams..(But I remember all my nightmares) but these “online conversation” dreams has really done an impression on me, because whenever I confronted my friends about my issues with them, I have treated those conversations as something that really happened. One example is a friend of mine who lied to me inside the dream, and when I confronted him with it in reality…the argument got very heated until I started to remember the dream..and of course then I apologize. It is ME who has the issues alright
Hi All,
I’m a frequent lucid dreamer, since my earliest memories are actually of recurring lucid dreams–and not of life (is that sad or awesome?). As far as techniques, paying close attention to moving in and out of a dream state is way more important than trying to play tricks in the dreamscape. As with life, making events happen according to your goals is the secret of lucid dreaming, and keeping a record of your dreams is key. Everyone is different.
–If you’re waking up, it’s because your conscious mind is just more comfortable in the waking world, and perceives the dream world as a barrier to the senses. Practice makes perfect.
–I have read text in a dream.
–I have had in-depth conversations including ideas which “I” didn’t think of.
–I have found myself in environments so conspicuously complex that I can’t credit my own mind for creating them (the other 90%?)
–Dreams often seem more real than reality, that’s why it’s unusual to figure them out.
–Totems (symbols unique to dreams) are not about physical reality, but about memory (Oh, if I’m walking around with a croquet mallet, it’s because that’s what I wanted to be my clue).
–My dreams usually happen in new, unique environments, but with people from real life.
–I’ve experienced emotions in dreams which don’t seem to occur in real life.
Thoughts?
Aaron
Well, I haven’t actually been trying to have lucid dreams, but have been trying to understand the symbolism of them. As a result, I have found times when I know I am dreaming while I am dreaming – I just seem to know. I didn’t know you couldn’t read text – I have. I pay attention to it, so I can remember it when I wake up and make note of it – granted when looking at books that are familiar the information isn’t the same as it should be.
I stumbled on this site trying to figure out what I have experienced. I had a dream like situation while sleeping where I know I was someone else and this lady was skiing, but I noticed that her feet became really cold, so I looked down to see if she was wearing boots, but her ski pants covered my vision of her feet, so I touched her ankle to check if she had ski boots on and she did. I could feel the fabric of her ski pants and the sensation of knocking on the boot to see if it was there. I’ve experienced sensations while sleeping, but it is often connected to my physical body or more of a dull sensation of cold or hot or wet etc. This time it was like I was there experiencing everything in someone else’s body. I thought it was maybe somehow connected to lucid dreaming, but now I’m not sure exactly what it was. Any thoughts?
The light switch technique still works for me. It never fails. Infact, I sometimes accidentally become lucid by trying to turn on a light.