Health Dreams, foods for calm, tummy tighteners

Is your sleep full of fairytale fodder? Our expert reveals there are some truths – and exactly what they are

Whether it’s falling from the sky, being chased or standing naked in front of a crowd, the places our minds go at night could, in fact, be telling us something.

“When we sleep, our dreaming brain processes our experiences of the past one to two days in a bid to make sense of our world,” reveals dream analyst Jane Teresa Anderson, author of The Dream Handbook.

She says dreams are symbolic, not literal, and need interpretation. “Don’t take the storyline of a dream as truth and act on it. If you dream you should marry the guy next door, don’t do it!”

Techniques for interpreting dreams can be learnt. “Each dream has unique and personal meaning to each dreamer, and the details of the dream pinpoint the precise meaning. Avoid using a dream dictionary. Try a journal instead.”