dreaming

I know I’m not dreaming simply from the fact I can even ask if I am dreaming. When I’m actually dreaming the most random stuff can happen and I don’t even question the fact that it must be real

I think the idea is to form a habit or a tick that is so strong it carries over to your dream. So like, if you commit to wearing a watch everyday, and check it every 5 minutes, eventually you'll do it in your dreams too. Then, you don't have to intentionally check whether you're in a dream, hoprfully you'll just catch the time being wildly different and be like "holy crap this was a dream??"
- Yes, that is correct. It's one of the strategies you learn when you start diving in to lucid dreaming. Another is to look at some writing (maybe even this sign) and look away and look back, it will say something else if it's a dream.
  I got really into lucid dreaming when I was younger, but I couldn't fly because I guess I just have no imagination, so I gave up.
I will often turn to another character in my dream and go "this is a dream" often times they'll agree.
Plus i can't punch or harm anyone even when i desperately want to
Exactly why I supported your stance on kumquats, Mr President. Now hurry, the pterodactyls need you for this year's cotton ball festival. I'll pack the dental floss, you get on the Komodo dragon and let's show them how a couple of old school icecreams party.

Ahhh like an old favorite of mine

DON'T PLEASE DON'T JUST COUNT YOUR FINGERS PLEASE
- Genuine question, why not?

If I was dreaming I would not be able to read that sign. Words would be all blurry and jumbled.

Not always, I find words perfectly legible in dreams but the text will change if I look away and look back again.
- I Google stuff in my dreams all the time and it legible. But then when I submit the query it wakes me up because my brain is all like "dude you are the computer simulating this entire dream world you ain't connected to the internet. Googling is just asking yourself the same question again". That kind of breaks the immersion
So would the ⌚

I did this but with the number of fingers on my hand. I counted 12 fingers and just said oh that's nice. Never realized it was a dream until long after I had woken up.

I also think your brain can make you think you read the same time or text etc in a dream. It might be a higher chance to go lucid though.

I pinch my nose and attempt to inhale through it, if successful, I'm dreaming.

Shoutout to my piece of shit brain that figured out that trick and decided to simulate accurate nose pinching physics.
But if you're in control enough to pinch and inhale, are you asleep enough to be really dreaming? Or is your mind just wandering half-awake?
Personally, if I can get to "I think/hope this is a dream" I'm already starting to wake up.
And it's usually because I suddenly recognize a familiar dream-trope, like "the reason I'm wandering this disgusting public bathroom looking for a toilet that's not overflowing with X-crements is because I need to wake up and go pee."
Or the one where I know I'm drowning and I can only hope it's a dream because I'm trapped and the only way out is to die and wake up gasping.
But I can't change my actions in the dream itself unless I'm already coming to the end of the natural sleep cycle, and then it's basically do I wrap this up or extend it a little?
Or sometimes I haven't fully fallen asleep and maybe I realize this scenario is at a beach or on a cruise ship or in a dock house or a half-lit indoor pool and I'm like, NOPE!
But pinch my nose, check my watch, look in a mirror? I might as well try to run.
- You pinch your nose while awake as well, let's say whenever I stop at a red light, I pinch my nose, can't breathe, if I dream and see a red light, I'll remember to pinch my nose based off the prior habit. The marker you leave to remind you while asleep is a habit built while awake.

Looked at my watch a minute ago and it was 2:12. Just looked again and it's a completely different time, 2:13

Welp this day is a stupid dream I guess

Every sign has a story and I'd love to hear that one.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/people/mysterious-poster-claiming-people-may-not-know-if-they-are-dreaming-is-a-hoax-says-sheffield-council-1381394
The guy who hung it printed it out and taped it up just before snapping the photo. Really cool story honestly.
Story: prop for internet memes

Hear is an easy hack, try screaming out of fear, you won't be able to scream or hear yourself screaming, and you will wake up on the spot.

- perseverance is key. if you keep at it a few will join you , and the rest will follow , that's just how societies work.
I don't wanna wake up though

Yup. In dreams I cannot achieve anything no matter the effort. And that failure loops.

The fact that I can post this means I'm not dreaming.

Bro that's when you're awake

Funnily, the couple of times I do remember my dreams, my mind likes to use the changing time against me to turn them into nightmares

Bro... That's just life and it's called ageing.
- Oh.

Nobody dreams of being in Sheffield.

I do!
Hey! it's lovely and green, right next to the Peak District
- It’s two hours from London by train and you can take a bus up to the Peak District from the city centre. There’s tons of artists and makers communities. It’s a very cool city.

I spent the first 12 years of my life or so, needing glasses without knowing, so I got good navigating rooms on instinct not sight. So now the number one way I realise I'm dreaming is when a room layout is off, even a little bit. Yay, lucid dreams.

But somehow, my phone/laptop/tech not functioning the way its supposed to never tips me off... I blame windows and Android. Boo stress nightmares.

But how do I learn to start checking if I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming? I have an embarrasing and frustrating reoccurring theme in my dreams and I'd love to know how to stop it when it happens

By doing the above actually. Frequently. The idea is you do that kind of thing (a “reality check”) so often in your waking life that the checks begin to transfer over to your dreams

i'm hungry, everything is awful and i wish i was asleep again.... yeah, definitely awake.

I'm kinda curious to know why the heck would a city council print this sign

...it doesn't, there are some fine pranksters in Sheffield.
- yeah, just read the article someone else published (should've just looked it up myself honestly), and it's a pretty funny prank.
Honestly kind of seems like It's something that was printed during the whole Inception craze and some city council probably did it as part of an event or something.

I personally like counting my fingers. It's quick, somewhat discrete and kinda trippy if it works. For me in a dream I can see I have five fingers, but when I actually count then I can count up to five but then just... keep counting

Everytime I see something like this I think back to that episode.
Batman can't read in a dream but maybe you can.

Funnily enough I had a dream last night about missing a scheduled flight after trying to help someone set up a Linux computer.

How can you be so sure the time will be different? As far as I know we haven’t discovered the laws of the dream world.

I use a top…

This looks like something @scarfolk@mastodonapp.uk would print.

But I don't have a wrist watch D:

I presume you could check any timepiece including your phone but idk.

My dreams barely have visuals so I'm definitely not.

Please wake up! We don’t know what to do anymore. If you receive this message, please wake up! Also, whatever you are dreaming right now, look behind you NOW!

Theres a wall

Ah, this reminded me of the old Linklater film Waking Life. Haven't thought about it for a long time. I used to be really into lucid dreaming when I was young and loved that movie.

Imagine thinking you were in Sheffield and then realizing it was just a dream. Oh the relief.

I'm not flying or melting or a ball of light, so I'm not dreaming.

As

The devs patched that by making clocks not render at all for me.