I almost had a lucid dream
Hi,
Several months ago, I started trying to have lucid dreams. I got into the habit of writing down my dreams and doing reality checks during the day with notifications on my phone. My reality check was to pinch my nose and try to breathe through it. If air still passed through, then I was supposed to be dreaming.
I never managed to have a lucid dream despite trying for several months. Then recently, I went on vacation with completely random sleep schedules, so I stopped the routine. Yesterday though, I randomly saw one of the notifications asking me to do a reality check, and I did it without really thinking about it.
Last night, I dreamed that I was in a place I had already visited in a previous dream. At one point, two guys pulled out knives to fight, and then one of them started running toward me. I started running too, except like often happens in dreams, I was moving extremely slowly.
In the dream, I suddenly realized that it made no sense for me to run that slowly because in real life I run very fast. I stopped and did my reality check. The first time, air passed through my nose even though I was pinching it shut. So I thought: “Okay, I’m dreaming.”
But right after that, I started doubting it. I decided to do the test a second time. And this time, no air passed through at all. So in the dream, I concluded that I actually wasn’t dreaming after all.
The weirdest part is that I genuinely felt awake, like my eyes were open, even though I was still asleep. Then a few seconds later, I actually woke up for real.
So I wanted to ask:
Has anyone here experienced something similar?
Can reality checks “fail” during a lucid dream?
And most importantly, how do you stay in control once you realize you’re dreaming?
Because I really feel like I was extremely close to having a full lucid dream, but lost it because of doubt.