Article: Clearly, if you can fly or lift extremely heavy objects, you're not awake. Keep in mind, however, that a lucid dreaming state can be a good way to practice actual physical actions that can help you in the real world. Some health care professionals use it to help people recovering from injuries envision their bodies recovering. The following abilities, however, are symptomatic of dreams. Test your abilities as follows: Try to levitate or float. If you can, you're in a dream state. Can you speak normally? If your voice is extremely croaky or not coming from your mouth at all, you're more than likely dreaming (it could also mean laryngitis, but it's probably a dream if your throat doesn't feel sore). Another dream sign is if your voice is way too high or low or is in a different accent. Try jumping on the spot. Can you jump over the moon, or maintain a jump for an abnormally long period of time? Or did you jump straight up and then land on Earth with a thud? Are you able to shift objects across a room or area without going near them? Can you switch appliances and lights on and off with thoughts alone? In addition, note that the level of light will rarely change as a result of flipping a switch in a dream state. Be aware that not every lucid dreaming advocate believes that this is a reliable test - for some dreamers, nothing changes when a light is switched on and off. Can you make objects appear before you just by wishing? Can you breathe underwater or teleport? If so, then you must be dreaming. Do you have superpowers with the 'excuse' being you've always had them but you forgot? Do you seem perfectly normal, but weird things happen with location? For example, if you're walking around the streets of Paris, but get lost and end up in New York, then you must be dreaming. Have you forgotten how to do normal things? (like suddenly not knowing how to write your name or even speak). Are you doing something ridiculous? For example, trying to fix a leaky tap with a spatula, trying to hold up a supermarket for no reason, or peeing in public for no reason. Likewise, if you are doing something ridiculous, does nobody seem surprised? Similar to the toilet dream mentioned below, sometimes in dreams, people pee and yet still feel like they have to pee. In real life, this could mean you have a U.T.I, but if you seem fine otherwise, this could be a dream sign. Are you younger or older than you should be? Are you pregnant even though you haven't had unprotected sex recently if ever or are even a virgin? A good test of whether or not you're dreaming is if your usual waking habits distort or are inconsistent with what is normally done. For example, if you usually turn the key once to unlock a door but your dream has you turning it three times despite the fact that this would not be possible in waking life, then you have a sign that you're dreaming. Test this while awake. Read the paper, look away, then come back to it again and read it. Hopefully the text has stayed the same! The point of this is to reinforce this as an action for your mind whether or not it is dreaming. In dreams, reading is difficult as the words become distorted. Try looking away from the text and then looking back again; if it's a dream, there is a high likelihood that the text will have morphed into something else. Keep something to read next to your bed. If you have just finished a lucid dream, it's possible that you're still dreaming. If not, and you're actually awake, you can read the text next to the bed. Look at a digital watch or clock. This is a variant on the text distortion - again, if the digital numbers blur, change, or make no sense, then you're probably dreaming. Check complex patterns, another variant of text and clocks.
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Test your strength and abilities. Check everyday occurrences. Do a reading test.