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 can'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).

Two years ago I first wrote about the EPOC, a neuroheadset developed by a company called Emotiv. The EPOC uses EEG sensors and motion detection to read your brain activity and facial expressions. You can map specific thoughts to specific actions or events. For example, the EPOC can translate your thoughts into actions in a video game. You think about jumping and your video game character will jump.

You can use the EPOC to translate your brain activity into art or music. You can connect the EPOC to an electric wheelchair and use your thoughts to control the chair. You can use your thoughts to sort and categorize photos and videos on your computer. The potential applications are endless.

Tan Le, the CEO of Emotiv, demonstrated the EPOC at a recent TED conference. Check out the video below to see the neuroheadset in action.

In this powerfully moving video, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor recounts what it felt like to have massive stroke. She describes with intense passion the experience of watching her brain functions shut down one by one, losing speech and motor functions, and ultimately losing self-awareness, culminating in a feeling of oneness with everything.

Her experience brings to mind the stories of enlightenment and transcendence found in many mystical and spiritual traditions.

Have you ever felt physical pain while in a dream? Many people have the luxury of never experiencing pain in their dreams. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. I feel pain in my dreams just as vividly as I feel it in waking life.

If you don't feel physical pain in your dreams, you can use the lack of pain as a trigger for lucidity. If you are injured and suddenly realize you're not feeling any pain, perform a reality check to determine whether or not you're dreaming.

Have you ever been injured in a dream and woken later to find yourself experiencing pain in the same part of your body that was hurt in the dream? Or how about the reverse — have you ever injured yourself in waking life only to have the pain seep into your dreams?

In my own experience, physical pain is fully capable of crossing the border between waking and dreaming. I recently injured my foot and a few days later dreamed of hobbling along a wooded path, stumbling a few times due to pain in that same foot. In my dream, the pain in my foot felt just as intense as the pain I was feeling while awake.

It provided an opportunity for lucidity because I paused long enough to wonder why I was walking through the woods instead of resting at home with my foot elevated. I questioned the scenario and realized I must be dreaming. Interestingly, the pain didn’t go away even after I discovered I was in a dream, nor after I considered that my dream self had no reason to suffer the pain my waking self was dealing with.

Even more intriguing is when the situation plays out in reverse. On two separate occasions, I have dreamed of being injured and then awakened to find I was feeling severe pain in the same part of my body that had been injured in the dream. The pain carried over from the dream into my waking life.

This raises a fascinating question: how does a dream injury trigger pain in your waking self? Does the dream injury occur as a result of pain in your sleeping body (perhaps due to sleeping in an uncomfortable position)? Does your mind interpret pain signals from your sleeping body and feed them into your dream, producing a dream scenario that involves the same pain? Or, does the dream injury occur with no prompting from the body and is then translated into physical pain by your waking self?

The answer just as likely may be “all of the above”. The mind-body connection is a powerful thing. In any case, experiences like these always evoke in me an even deeper respect for the mysteries of the dreaming mind.

I recently read Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in lucid dreams. I've read nearly every book about lucid dreaming and I can say without hesitation this book is one of the best.

There are plenty of how-to books geared toward readers who seek to experience lucid dreams for the first time. While Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self contains some techniques for that purpose, it offers so much more than that.

Waggoner takes lucid dreaming to a whole new level. Through his investigation of the profound inner awareness ever-present in our dreams, he demonstrates the vast potential for exploration and personal growth available to us lucid dreaming. This aspect of the book resonated deeply with me because it echoes my current approach to dreaming.

In my early lucid dreams, I tried to control the dream and all its contents. Often, I focused solely on the entertainment value. Over the years, I learned there was much more to lucid dreaming and I began to treat each dream as an exploration of my unconscious mind. I questioned the characters who appeared in my dreams, I sought out dream guides, and I pondered the deeper meaning of the objects that surrounded me.

I eventually progressed to posing questions and requests to the dream itself. Now if I want to know what something represents, I ask the dream, "What does this represent?" If I want to explore a particular aspect of the dream or probe further into a specific topic, I address my request directly to the dream. Sometimes I simply stand in the middle of the dream scene and state the request, and then reframe my question or ask for clarification when necessary. The response is sometimes verbal and other times visual or auditory instead, but the results frequently surprise and astonish me. While I still spend some of my lucid dream time on entertainment, I spend an equal amount of time enjoying the excitement and adventure that comes with exploring the uncharted territory of my dreaming mind.

It is rare to find a book that approaches lucid dreaming from this angle, especially one that so thoroughly details the ways in which the dreamer can explore the hidden — and often meaningful — aspects of the dream. I truly wish I had read the book years ago when I first began my lucid dreaming practice.

Waggoner’s enthusiasm for dreaming is evident on every page. Whether you are an experienced lucid dreamer or new to lucid dreaming, you should add Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self to your personal library. Reading it will awaken you to all the many possibilities lucid dreaming can offer.

If you're looking for a quick way to relax and get rid of stress, give this 10-minute audio track a try. It features brainwave technology layered with relaxing ambient music.

I design tracks like this for my company each month as free gifts for our customers. We normally use nature sounds on our CDs instead of music, because any music with a steady rhythm or a repeating pattern or beat can counteract the effects of the brainwave technology. We've recently been exploring the use of ambient music designed specifically to enhance the effects of the brainwave technology. Today's track and the track I posted a few months ago are the result of our explorations with music. The music in today's track is a little bit spacey and atmospheric. I haven't decided if I'm happy with it yet or not, so any feedback would be welcome.

Instructions for using this track:

1. Do not listen to this audio track while driving.

2. Listening without headphones will provide light relaxation. Listening with headphones will give you access to the brainwave effects and will provide deeper relaxation.

3. Listen to it at a soft comfortable volume. Turning it up louder will not make the underlying brainwave technology more effective.

4. You don't have to listen with your eyes closed, but I recommend it. The best way to get the most benefit out of this track is to sit back with your eyes closed and just let the music flow over you. If you prefer to keep your eyes open while listening, the brainwave technology will be more effective if you listen in a quiet place where you're not likely to be distracted by noise or lights. (Flickering light can affect your brain activity and counteract the effects of the audio track.)

Please feel free to share this MP3 file with friends, or point them to this page so they can download the most recent version.

Listen to a sample of the file:

[See post to listen to audio]

To download the file and save it to your computer:

1. Right-click on the link below.
2. Select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" from the menu.

Here's the link: 10-Minute Stress Buster (9.3MB)

UPDATE as of May 15, 2010: I'm sorry I can no longer offer this audio file as a free download through this site. I had to remove the file because it's now included on a bonus disc offered through my company's web site.

The International Association for the Study of Dreams is hosting its annual PsiberDreaming Conference next week. The conference is held entirely online, so no matter where in the world you live, you can attend without ever having to leave your home.

The conference will feature presentations and workshops, group dream experiments, a PsiberDreaming art gallery, and chats with some of the world's foremost experts on dreaming. There are dedicated discussion boards where you can discuss each presentation with the author and the other participants.

Here is a blurb from the conference web site:

Between September 21 – October 5, 2008 join some of the world's foremost experts on the subject of Psi dreaming for two weeks of cutting-edge papers, discussions, workshops, and chats. If you've ever had a precognitive dream, a lucid dream, or simply an "unusual dream" that never quite made sense, this is the place for you.

The list of presenters is a veritable Who's Who in the world of dream studies. Robert Waggoner, co-editor of The Lucid Dream Exchange, Kelly Bulkeley, author of several books about dreaming, Robert Moss, author of several books and host of the radio show Way of the Dreamer, and many other great presenters will be participating in this event. Ryan Hurd from the Dream Studies Portal will be presenting his paper, The Construction of Self from the Void of Imageless Lucid Dreaming.

To read more about the conference or to register to attend, please visit the PsiberDreaming Conference web site.

I just came across this great Calvin & Hobbes comic today. In it, Calvin experiences a classic false awakening. He dreams of being woken up, having breakfast, and going through his usual morning routine, only to discover it was all a dream. I've had false awakenings like this one many times.

Click on the image on the right to see the comic in full size.

While it's well known that various prescription medications can affect sleep quality or mental clarity, far less attention is paid to how they can adversely affect your dreams.

Some medications dampen REM activity, dull your dreams, and interfere with dream recall. Others stimulate vivid dream activity, though not always in a good way. Through a couple of recent experiences, I've also discovered prescription meds can impede your lucid dreaming efforts.

Muscle Relaxers and Hyperdreaming

A few years ago, I hurt my lower back and was left with a chronic ache punctuated by frequent sharp, stabbing pains. After an MRI and weeks of physical therapy, the problem got worse instead of better. Acupuncture and massage therapy had no effect either. I couldn't sit or stand for more than twenty minutes without pain, and I couldn't find a position comfortable enough to sleep in.

My doctor prescribed Flexaril, a muscle relaxer that was supposed to dull the pain. I don't like taking medication of any kind, and I was resistant to the idea of taking a muscle relaxer but gave in because at that point the prospect of being without pain overrode any misgivings I had. The prescribed dosage was one 10mg tablet three times per day, but the doctor recommended starting with only half a tablet before bedtime so I could get a better idea of how the medication would affect me.

Half a tablet, only 5mg, makes you very sleepy but also has the entertaining effect of turning your muscles to lead and distorting your sense of balance and space. Your motor skills and muscle control are so dulled you can't walk down the hallway without listing sideways or swerving back and forth like a drunken sailor. A simple trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night becomes an adventure.

But that's only half the fun. The next day, you feel like a zombie. Your mind is foggy, your body is sluggish and your energy is sapped. This feeling usually wears off by late afternoon but by then you've already wasted an entire day. If this is what half a 10mg pill can do, I can't even imagine what effect the prescribed 30mg daily dosage would have.

In the end, Flexaril did absolutely nothing to dull the pain, but it did have a bizarre effect on my dreams.

Without the influence of medication, my dreams are nearly always vivid and I typically remember two or more dreams each night. That's the product of practicing many different dream techniques over the years. If I take just half a Flexaril tablet at bedtime, my dreams go crazy, and there's nothing fun about them. They become a frenzied rush of flickering images, a raging flood that goes on and on at top speed until my body and mind are utterly exhausted. I wake up with my jaw tightly clenched and my muscles aching even worse than they did before.

Lucid dreaming on Flexaril is impossible. You careen through your dreams so wildly there's no chance for a reality check, no chance to pause and look around, no chance to achieve even a modicum of lucidity. I've experienced this phenomenon only a few times before. I call it hyperdreaming because it feels like you're traveling at warp speed through the dream events. The dreams are vivid but everything moves so quickly you have almost no hope of remembering individual details, let alone becoming lucid.

Nightmares That Overwhelm Lucid Dreaming Efforts

In November I was given a single tablet in the lowest available dosage of another prescription medication, and I paid the price for weeks afterward. The worst of it occurred the night I took the medication. I experienced a non-stop stream of vivid nightmares, each one more violent than the last. It was horrifying and draining. I woke up several times throughout the night, shaking and aching all over, but slipped right back into another nightmare every time I fell back to sleep.

The most frustrating aspect was that each time I found myself in another nightmare, I was able to reach a state of lucidity but the lucidity did nothing to ease the horror of the dreams. I was aware that I was dreaming, but somehow that awareness didn't bring any sense of relief. Despite knowing I was dreaming and knowing the events weren't real, I was still terrified in each and every dream. This is not typical for me at all. Lucidity usually brings with it a sense of calm, an inner peace that radiates outward into the dream. No such luck this time.

I was unable to gain enough control to influence the dreams, so changing the course of the dream events wasn't an option. I eventually came to the conclusion the only thing I could do was ride it out until morning. I assumed by then it would be over with once and for all.

I was wrong. The nightmares went on for several weeks. Whether it was a residual effect of the medication or a placebo result triggered by the intensity of the first night's experience, I don't really know. It was a miserable time. I woke up every morning feeling as if I'd hardly slept at all. Most of my attempts at lucid dreaming were unsuccessful. And it was all thanks to one little pill.

What Does This Mean For You?

It's amazing how strongly even the smallest dosage of a medication can influence your dreams or interfere with lucidity. If you're a dream enthusiast or if you are learning how to become lucid in your dreams, be sure to ask your doctor what effect any medication might have on your sleep and dreams. I'm betting most doctors won't have any idea about potential side effects related to dreams, but it's worth asking just in case.

If you're looking for a quick way to relax, either for meditation purposes or simply to release stress and tension, this 10-minute brainwave audio track will do the trick. This is a track I designed for my company a few months ago as a free gift for our customers, and now I'm making it available to visitors of this site as well.

Instructions for using this track:

1. Do not listen to this audio track while driving.

2. Listening without headphones will provide light relaxation. Listening with headphones will give you access to the brainwave effects and will provide better relaxation.

3. Listen to it at a soft comfortable volume. Turning it up louder will not make the underlying brainwave technology more effective.

4. You don't have to listen with your eyes closed, but I recommend it. If you prefer to keep your eyes open while listening, the brainwave technology will be more effective if you listen in a quiet place where you're not likely to be distracted by noise or flashing lights.

Please feel free to share this MP3 file with friends, or point them to this page so they can download the most recent version.

Listen to a sample of the file:

[See post to listen to audio]

To download the file and save it to your computer:

1. Right-click on the link below.
2. Select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" from the menu.

Here's the link: 10-Minute Light Relaxation (9.1MB)

UPDATE as of May 15, 2010: I'm sorry I can no longer offer this audio file as a free download through this site. I had to remove the file because it's now included on a bonus disc offered through my company's web site.