Reality checks: the foundation technique

A reality check is a small action that gives a different result awake and asleep. Done often enough while awake, it becomes automatic, and an automatic habit can survive into a dream.

The checks that work, and why

All three exploit the same limitation: dreams do not maintain stable, re-inspectable detail.

1. Read something, look away, read it again. The text changes. The most reliable check there is.
2. Look at a clock, look away, look again. The time changes, or the face is unreadable.
3. Look at your hands. Fingers are often wrong in number, length or shape.

A fourth, often more reliable but harder to do discreetly: pinch your nose closed and try to breathe in. In a dream you usually can.

The part people get wrong

Doing the check is not the technique. Genuinely asking the question is.

A check performed absent-mindedly, already certain of the answer, trains nothing. The habit you want is the doubt, not the gesture. Ask it seriously: how did I get here? Does the last hour actually make sense?

When to do them

• Ten to fifteen times a day, spread out.
• Every time you wake up. The highest-value one. It is what catches a false awakening.
• Whenever something odd happens, and especially whenever one of your dream signs appears.

Personal dream signs

Generic checks are fine. Personal ones are better. Your journal will show you what recurs in your dreams: a place, a person, a situation. Those are your triggers, and the pattern view surfaces them.