A dream sign is any person, object or situation that occurs in someone's dream on a regular basis. Dream signs are usually unique to an individual, and range greatly in nature from person to person.
If, for instance, many dreams of yours feature a car, that could be a dream sign for you. Dream signs have many uses, such as dream interpretation, but they are mostly used as a form of reality check.
Reality Checking[]
See full article: Reality Checks - Dream sign
Since dream signs are regular in dreams, whenever a dreamer sees one, he or she can consider the possibility that they are dreaming. This kind of reality check has an advantage because you don't have to do anything that involves dream control to perform it. All you need to do is this: When you see such a dream sign, consider the chance that you are dreaming. Whereas other reality checks are often initiated by a conscious event, dream signs are often just simple observations. Be it the presence of a familiar object or odd behaviour from a character, all you need to do is observe. Even though they are useful, dream signs are never completely reliable for attaining lucidity. That is because dream signs can change without you knowing it, and are not necessarily present in dreams: either you dream about them or you don't.
Frequency[]
Perhaps the determining factor between a dream sign and any other unusual observations or events we meet in all our dreams are their frequency. Dream signs regularly occur in more than one dream, generating a pattern that can be discovered through analysing dream journals. These frequent occurances can then be used to trigger lucidity when next observed.
Nature[]
Dream signs vary greatly from person to person, and are often unique to a particular individual. However, frequent themes include:
- Being in a particular location.
- A character behaving oddly.
- The presence of a certain object.
- The presence of a character from the dreamer's past.
- The presence of a character who is in real life dead.
- A particular inconsistancy with the real world.
- The presence of the dreamer's dream guide.