The book that turned me on to the power of dreams was "Creative Dreaming" by Dr Patricia Garfield in the late 1970s - she earned her PhD on the subject. When I discussed this with my Aunt she said her husband used to lie in bed saying "Now what shall I dream about tonight - and requested subject". My comment was "was he a man contented with life" and she concurred. There is a connection there.

I started using them to be creative but most of the dreams I recorded (5 a night) didn't reveal anything useful. As it took 2 hours a day to write up my dreams from scribbled notes I gave up.

A few years later I realised I had predicted my divorce in them. It was not obvious to me at the time, and it didn't predict her antics! Such is the complexity of analysis.

Nowadays I ask my brain simpler things as I drop off to sleep. Like wanting to wake up at a certain time and to remind myself of a task next day. That works. Dreams that result are just as incomprehensible.