Dr. Rosalind Cartwright, a sleep psychologist at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago, has done research into using dream interpretation to deal with the stress of a divorce.

"Even if we remember them," Lites said, "dreams often are dismissed as too confusing or irrelevant to be taken seriously."

But Cartwright said even the most bizarre dreams can be understood and then used to help people going through one of life's most trying times, a divorce.

"About 60 percent of all people going through a divorce will have a major depression episode," Cartwright said, "Even though they don't recognize it."

Cartwright said she is studying the dreams of men and women going through the stress of a divorce, people like Amanda Ward.

"There were moments I was extremely down," Ward said, "and wondered how I was going to pull myself up out of that situation."

Ward was one of 75 divorcees who recorded their dreams at the Rush Presbyterian Hospital Sleep Center. She was awakened every time her brain waves indicated a dream, which allowed her to remember them clearly.

"Oh, bizarre," Ward said of her dreams. "Things that incorporated little bits and pieces of my life in the past couple months. People in my very removed past. A grade school friend popped up in one of my dreams last night."

"It's like Scotch plaid," Cartwright said. "It's memory on top of memory that's filed together by the feeling, not by the logic of it."

Cartwright said event he most bizarre dreams have meaning. She said that as couples begin a divorce, the first dreams generally are negative toward the spouse, but without anger.

"It's sort of like, 'My husband had taken the paycheck and not left me any housekeeping money,'" Cartwright said. "But there's not much feeling."

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Cartwright said the dreams then turn ugly, with lots of anger toward the ex. Cartwright recalled one woman's dream of living in an apartment with new white rugs, until her husband came to visit.

"He just tracked mud all through these nice white rugs, and she was furious," Cartwright said. "'He came in here, and he just ruined my beautiful new place,' and she was so mad when she woke up."

Cartwright said the last stage in healing is when the dreams reflect feelings of freedom.

"Beginning to feel, 'He's gone' or "She's gone,'" Cartwright said. "'Isn't it great! I can now get on with my life in a better way.'"

Lites said Ward found herself currently in that stage.

"I've taken up Latin dancing, found some new friends, "Ward said. "Just trying to refocus and put things back together."

Cartwright said that eventually, she hopes to use a special home sleep monitor to interrupt dreams at home. She believes that by ending the dreams before they get to the nightmare stage, the dreams will be more positive and actually help patients overcome their depression faster.

Chicago-area study probes dreams and divorce.