We've all experienced bizarre dreams in which people we know look like someone else or we get freaky with an unappealing co-worker. But are those subconscious thoughts that zap through our brains at night really relevant in our waking hours?

Yes, according to Gillian Holloway, an internationally recognized dream expert with over 20 years of experience interpreting dreams under her belt.

In her soon-to-be-released book "The Complete Dream Book of Love and Relationships: Discover What Your Dreams and Intuition Reveal About You and Your Love Life," Holloway uses her analysis of over 30,000 actual dreams to get to the bottom of what our dreams say about our romantic relationships.

And it's not all chick stuff. "To my surprise, I've found that men's dreams often focus on relationships," she tells us. "I really thought that would be more of a woman's thing."

Read on to learn what eight common dreams say about your love life.

1. If You Dream About ... Building or Healing
"Dreams about a healing wound or of building something new -- like a house or a bridge -- tend to occur when a person has just made a romantic connection that is going to be a positive force in their life," Holloway explains.

2. If You Dream About ... Bad Past Relationships
"On the other hand," she continues, "if we are making a connection that might be less wholesome, people start dreaming of bad relationships they have been in in the past."

3. If You Dream About ... Contentment and General Fulfillment
When Holloway asks people what they were dreaming after they met the person that became their spouse, they tend not to be having erotic, sexy dreams. Instead, their subconscious feeds them dreams of general fulfillment and contentment. An example of this is a man who dreamed of buying a farm that become very fertile, right before he realized that the woman he was with was the one.

4. If You Dream About ... Sex
As for those erotic, sexy dreams that heat up the night? Holloway says you should be careful not to read too much into them:

"Erotic, Hollywood-style dreams are more signals of excitement and attraction," she said. "But what I see a lot of is people assuming because you had a dream about rolling in the surf, or some other erotic scene, that means you've meet your soul mate. For better or worse, this is not the sign your subconscious is sending."

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5. If You Dream About ... Other Happy Couples
According to Holloway, often single folks will dream about a couple they know, or even a fictional or famous couple who have a reputation for being happy. "That is an indication that the person having the dream is ready to get involved in a relationship again," she told us

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