This subject often raises a few eyebrows because by it's very nature it can seem a futile exercise, until you have your first lucid dream. Then it all becomes clear. Reality checks are exactly what their title describes. They are a method by which you can check to see if what you perceive as being real IS real.

Sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste are the five main ways that we perceive our reality. Some would argue that there are six ways (psychically). All of those senses go into the brain to be interpreted as 'Reality'. What happens when the brain starts to make its own reality, such as when you are dreaming? How as a lucid dreamer can you tell if things are real or not? You need some method that will differentiate the real world from the dreaming world. The answer, of course, is the reality check

The Reality Check
The reality check is the most powerful method for having a lucid dream. Very few people know this but you will often have what is know as a 'false awakening' during the night. Those are the times when you wake up and do something such as checking your clock or maybe listening to a noise that may have disturbed you. Often, you haven't woken up at all. What has happened is that you have become conscious in dream. You have been lucid dreaming and you never knew it.

If you had been used to reality checking, you would have been able to spot this and would have had a wonderful lucid dream. As you can see, checking your reality can bring the awareness needed to trigger a lucid dream, whilst you are dreaming. This opens up opportunity's to lucid dream that you never knew were there.

There are several different methods which enable you to distinguish between this 'real' world and the lucid world.

A simple method is the 'pinch nose' reality check. This one can be done anywhere anytime. Simply pinch your nose with your mouth closed and try to breath in through your nose. If you cannot breath in, you are awake in this world. If you can breathe in then you are in a dream. For reasons unknown, you can breath through a closed nose or mouth in dream world. This will cause you to become lucid and hey presto, you are having a lucid dream.