Reality testing

Reality testing is a common method used by people to determine whether or not they are dreaming. It involves performing an action and observing if the results are consistent with results which would be expected in a state of wakefulness. By practising these tests during waking life, one may eventually decide to perform such a test while dreaming, which may fail and let the dreamer realize that they are dreaming. (The more foolproof the reality test, the better, as assuming one is dreaming can be dangerous)

• The hand reality check: The dreamer looks at their hands and they may appear to have more or less than five fingers.
• The nose reality check: The dreamer pinches their nose shut and if they are able to breathe without using their nose, it is a dream.
• Sticking one's finger through the palm of one's hand.
• Looking at one's digital watch (remembering the time), looking away, and looking back. As with text, the time will probably have changed randomly and radically at the second glance or contain strange letters and characters. (Analog watches do not usually change in dreams, while digital watches and clocks have a great tendency to do so.)A digital watch or clock may feature strange characters or the numbers all out of order.
• Flipping a light switch. Light levels rarely change as a result of the switch flipping in dreams.
• Looking into a mirror; in dreams, reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred, distorted, incorrect, or frightening.
• Looking at the ground beneath one's feet or at one's hands. If one does this within a dream the difference in appearance of the ground or one's hands from the normal waking state is often enough to alert the conscious to the dream state.

A more precise form of reality testing involves examining the properties of dream objects to judge their apparent reality. Some lucid dreamers report that dream objects when examined closely have all the sensory properties, stability, and detail of objects in the physical world. Such detailed observation relates to whether mental objects and environments could effectively act as substitutes for the physical environments with the dreamer unable to see significant differences between the two. This has implications for those who claim there is a spiritual or supernatural world that might be accessible through out of body experience or after death.