Interested in interpreting your own dreams? Try this method and see if it works for you!

First, throw away that dream dictionary. Forget all that water-means-change, ladders-mean-career-opportunities stuff. Others may disagree, but I've found that most experts believe dream symbols have no objective meanings. You made them up, and only you can unlock them.

Second, record your dreams. If you can't remember them, start recording them anyway. Jot down even the faintest flicker of an image or an idea. The more you record, the more you'll remember. It may sound simple, but it works.

(Tips: Don't use an alarm clock to wake up. Come to wakefulness naturally. Train yourself to lie still as you're coming up; let your dreams float up with you. Fix on any image you can remember. Hold onto it. Whisper it out loud to make it gel. Then write it down at once. Dream images are often connected like beads. Record one and you'll probably remember another, and another, and another.)

Third, take your dream apart. According to the late Christopher Evans, a British psychologist and computer scientist, nothing in a dream is purely invented. Each dream is stitched together out of bits and pieces from your real life. If you think there are people in your dreams that you've never seen before, think again. They might be composites. The face might come from a fleeting glimpse of someone you saw in a crowd. The clothes might come from an ad on TV. The voice may be that of a former teacher. Tie each image to its source and the whole dream will often deconstruct. Suddenly, with face, outfit, and voice lifted away, the stranger in your dream may stand revealed as--your neighbor! Or your best friend, or your boss, or your cat.

Fourth, make sure you're not still dreaming. This issue came up in a dream class I took. Some of the students said that since dreams seem real to the dreamer, there is no way to tell if you're in one. I joked that you could check your bed and see if you were still asleep. Later that day--and it was a normal day--I began to obsess over this concept that I might be dreaming. So, I confess. I tried out my own advice: I went to my room to see if I was asleep.

And I was.