My late mother was known among family and friends as the "Dream Lady" because she carried around with her a dream interpretation book, as well as a canary yellow legal notebook that contained her own meanings to the dreams she interpreted over the years. Through her I learned that we all dream every night, but we do not always recall them. When we do recall our dreams we usually remember them in black and white, even though we may be dreaming in color. However, it's been my experience that if we do more dream-work preparation prior to sleep, we can piece together a message and meaning, and decipher the intended meaning our dreams might imply. We can work through our issues at night during sleep, and process them through our dreamlike meandering. It is a healthy and safe way to reflect on the things that are foremost on our minds. Remembering is helpful to us emotionally, physically and spiritually if we understand a little about what our dreams are telling us.
In order to interpret those nighttime vignettes you have while sleeping, there are three things to keep in mind to help with more active, detail recall.
1. Keep a journal of some type (electronic or otherwise) at your bedside so that you can reach for it without getting out of bed. A lot of significant elements will be fresher at that time, and dream recall is all in the details.
2. Pay special attention to what you experienced regarding the five senses. Take into account any people, images, colors, time of day, smell, sound, or any experience. Nothing you note is insignificant.
3. Though you can purchase a dream dictionary or look the definition of certain words up on the Internet, please keep in mind that no definition is etched in stone. There are as many interpretations as there are dreams, so you will never get a clear indication of meaning unless you use the definitions only as a guideline. So, jot down your own meanings as they apply to your life in your journal, too.
Once you have gathered your information and logged it into your journal, scan over the meanings and see what applies to your life and/or situation. It will be those applications that should be jotted down more seriously because they relate to what is foremost on your mind during sleep. By writing down and examining our sleep-filled reverie, we can work out problems and exorcise negative thinking so that we are happier and healthier.