I think the idea is to combine the two. Take notice of what you commonly dream about, and go crazy with the RCs after you’ve identified a few key places or objects. For example, I tend to dream about my parents’ house quite frequently, so I started doing RCs every time I went to visit them in real life.
If you keep a journal it shouldn’t be hard to locate common dream occurrences that you also encounter consistently in RL.
It’s much more effective to notice your natural dream signs because you dream about them more often. If you notice you see your mom a lot, voila whenever your mom walks in RC RC! As opposed to just your hand, which you might not see very often. Well, most people see their hand, but it’s a pain to remember it… I’d be doing RCs every few seconds, not good for my nose… wait that’s not a bad thing. But I doubt I’d be able to remember to RC every time I see my hand. If you see your alarm clock a lot, then it’s great to do an RC with it. You can also do RCs by posting post-its everywhere, to get it in your head to RC in a dream. But it’s best to do RCs about something you see frequently in a dream.
Is it our unconscious mind which removes these signs from our dreams?
Since beginning reality checks more than a week ago I haven’t had a single RC in my dreams so far. I’m sure I’ll have one sooner or later. My RC is checking my watch twice or three times, or reading text twice whenever I see a notice or words on some wall etc…
The other night I tried to induce a dreamsign. I wanted to use use the moon as my dreamsign. in my dream, i dreamt of some guy being kidnapped and brought to the moon… I didn’t become lucid though, since I had been thinking more of an image of the moon, seen from earth. It does work though, you just have to make sure your subconscious doesn’t get it wrong, like mine did.
Aarrggh! Foiled by the subconscious again! 
Clark- performing reality checks in RL does not necesarily lead to making one in a dream.In many cases,me included it works in a way that i realize im dreaming out of the sudden.RCs are the habit of questioning reality not the habit of particular action.
take care:)
Well, while we’re on the topic of RC’s… Horses turn up a lot in my dreams. However, I only am around horses once a week, and that’s not always consistent. I’ll do some quick RC’s whenever I’m at the barn, but since I’m not exactly around them too much… Do you still think it will have any effect? I guess that kind of moves into the question, “does the number of RC’s count, or just the dreamsign that you’re around…”
The more you’re in a state of questioning reality, the better. At the same time, simply recognizing dreamsigns is important. So I guess the answer to your question is… both. 
But guys, I have the most inconsistent dreams ever! Nothing is ever the same! It’s always different people, different place, different role, different adventure! And I never EVER see objects often in other dreams! I have plenty of journal entries and I can’t find one!!! Quite strange actually, wonder if my subconscious is actually trying to stop me having lucid dreams…
Pedro, did you check whether you have any recurring themes?
I have a recurring theme, well occasionally recurring, of forgetting something behind - a shoe, anything, even underwear, in my dreams.
Since I’ve been writing my dreams down, I’ve only had the recurring theme in 2 dreams. Yes, the unconscious mind seems to avoid what was a recurring theme…
Yeah, I had this idea a while ago which still makes sense to me. That is that our subconscious minds try their best to stop us from becoming lucid. Psychologically and Neurologically, there are many different opinions as to what dreams do or mean. Freud thought they were heavily disguised wish fulfillments. Jung thought they balanced out the personality. Many neurologists think that dreams are in some way the byproduct of our brain reorganizing the network of connections which make up the mind. Whichever of these is true (or if the truth is something completely different) it seems that being lucid in a dream would counteract the purpose of dreaming. For example, if dreaming is an outlet for unfulfilled subconscious wishes, becoming lucid spoils that, because all of a sudden you’re fulfilling conscious wishes (eg. flying). If dreaming is meant to balance out your personality, then if you get lucid you’re not balancing out your personality, you’re just going to be the same as usual. And if dreams are meant to keep your neural network trimmed down and in shape, well, you’re not trimming it down when you’re lucid, you’re using it. So I think that the subconscious tries to stop us from getting lucid. Which is why as children many of us had LDs, because the subconscious mind wasn’t very good at masking the fact that you were dreaming. And as soon as you pick a dreamsign to use, I don’t know about you, but I get the feeling that that dreamsign becomes used less often after that.
Well, I am sorry I rambled on so much, please don’t feel obliged to read it.
It’s too late now, you should have put the disclaimer at the top.
Interesting points though.
I’m always seeing clocks or thinking of time in my dreams so this could work for me fingers crossed
Damn this is an old post lol. Where’d you find this!
I tried one of the tasks from EWLD the other day. I had to do an RC the next time I:
read something
checked the time
noticed myself daydreaming
heard a phone ring
I failed every one 
I have a terrible memory, I’ll keep trying though 
Thanx again for the info Pedro your info has really helped me come along way in a short period of time.
why not jsut get a tattoo someewhere thats easy to see, reminding you to do reality checks, eventually it would jsut be theree whiel you dreeam, it could even be a symbol that youll recognise as a reminder to do oyur RC’s
Because I don’t want a tattoo…
Besides, eventually you’d get used to seeing it as a part of your body. I’ve been wearing these bracelets for like a year. I haven’t taken them off once. I never notice them in daily life or in dreams, and they’re not even permanently attached (although they might as well be).
Pedro… theres nothing that you find yourself doing in dreams commonly? My friend said he never had common dreams but then RIGHT AFTER that told me he leaps a lot in dreams as a means of travel. That could be an RC… every time you jump. Well… an RC for him anyway.
I think the best way to use reality checks is find something that happens in both dreams and the waking. For instance do a reality check whenever you open a door to go through it (don’t count doorways without doors or you would be doing nothing but RCs all day). Thats GOTTA happen at some point in one of your dreams… then, odds are, you will carry the check out in your dreams out of custom.
Well since I use VILD it aint too important for me. VILD doesn’t rely on having to learn any common dreams… BUT thank God coz yeah I still don’t have any! I know a lot of my dreams are very much in my control but it doesn’t matter if I’m lucid or not! NO COMMON DREAMS! Strange…or maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough… But it doesn’t matter anymore anyway.