While many studies have sought to demonstrate the correlation between our dreams and well-being, if you’re still hovering on the fringes of scepticism, simply paying attention to the dreams you just can't ignore is a good place to start.

But how to know what’s important and what’s not worth the time? According to Ziemer, if you wake up ‘reacting’ to your dream, that’s one to take special note of.

“Any dream that leaves a strong impression, whether it frightens, confuses, inspires, or heals, urges us to reflect on our actions and to change our lives,” she explains, adding that spending a few moments to ponder and contemplate these dreams can likely leave us with a better understanding of ourselves.

“As with any relationship, we need to spend time with our dreams – consider the feelings they arouse, turn them over in our minds and hearts, listen to them, write them down: then we begin to understand our dreams more clearly,” she explains.

“The inner voice of dreams speaks in signs and symbols. As with any new language, we need to spend time learning the personal idiom of our dreams as well as the universal symbolic language.”

So the next time you wake up punching the pillow, it might be time to wonder whether there's more to deal with than an unaddressed dislike of your bedding...

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