I've heard for years that dreams are just supposed to be the by-product of the brain storing memories from the previous awake/conscious time, but have had a little trouble believing that because so many of my dreams have nothing to do with anything that happened recent. Then there's also dreams where I've experienced things that I've never experienced before, or going places I've never been to before.
I've also heard some claim that dreams have no greater meaning, while others claim that dreams are the sub-conscious trying to make sense of the world and the 'person' that the conscious mind is.
I'm no expert at all, so don't listen to me unless you want to end up as [expletive]d up as I am.
Lately I seem to have been having rather vivid dreams about dying and death (not me), and the slightly odd part is that the dead were from the Victorian era. The bodies were slightly mummified and kept/stored by relatives that were alive when they had died. It didn't seem morbid or distasteful, but rather caring; trying to remember the loved ones as they were when they were alive.