Lucid Dreaming/Reality Checks/Light switches

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Presentation[edit | edit source]

With the "light switches" reality check, you check if light switches work normally.

This is one of the less reliable reality checks, but for some people it works perfectly.

Examples of this reality check working[edit | edit source]

  • I was in my bedroom but it was dark. I tried to switch on the light, but nothing happened. I kept trying for a minute until I realised I was dreaming.
  • I dreamed I was working on my computer. I decided to quit and go to bed, so I shut off the computer. As I was walking to my room, I couldn't see anything, so I tried to put on the light by pushing the switch, but the switch didn't work. I ignored this and eventually found the way to my bed. In my bed, I thought: "Wait a minute, the light switch didn't work, I must be dreaming!" However, this excitement caused me to wake up.
  • I was dreaming and woke up in my room. I tried to turn on my light switch, but it melted off the wall. It turned into a liquidy substance, like the oily butter you get at most movie theaters.
  • (Note that this is not quite the same, but still similar). I was working on the computer at night, when I had been told to go to sleep. Not wanting to bother my room-mate/parents/spouse, who gets annoyed at me working late, I was working with the lights off. When I heard a noise, I thought it might be them waking up, so I quickly tried turning off my computer monitor. However, the button did not work. Even when I tried unplugging the monitor or forcing the computer to shut off, the monitor would not turn off, so I realized I was dreaming.
  • I just woke from a nightmare-turned-amusement where the light switch didn't work in my bedroom, leaving me immersed in a frightening darkness... but when I opened my bedroom door, looked out into the hallway, and flipped the switch a few more times, it started changing night to day and day to night outside! Well, okay, then! That got my attention.

Examples of this reality check failing[edit | edit source]

  • I flicked the switch and my light immediately turned on. Luckily though, I always use back up reality checks. So I got lucid anyways. Yay!
  • Half the time when I try this, the dream supplies some mundane reason why the switch didn't work. There's a short. A storm has knocked down the power lines. Wait, when was the last time I paid the electric bill?...