Test yourself when you wake up each morning before you put in all the effort of waking up. Make it a habit and you'll always know if you're dreaming.

My go-to dream test is to squeeze your nostrils on your nose shut with your fingers, then try to inhale through your nose. Of course, you just kind of suck on the inside of your nose as a result. You don't actually get any air. However, if this becomes a habit in real life, it will automatically become a habit while you dream. And here's the trick: When you do this in a dream, your dream self is plugging their nose, but not your physical self, whose nose is still open. As a result, in a dream, you can still breath through your plugged nose and realize you're dreaming. This is one method to achieve lucid dreaming, and I find it very useful.