: I don't think he gave instructions on how to work with dreams but he often would interpret them if it was beneficial. I read a Sutta in the scriptures about a dream that King Pasenadi had. He was a follower of the Buddha, and his wife, Queen Mallika, was quite a devoted disciple of the Buddha. King Pasenadi reportedly started to develop an attraction towards a married woman, and thought that since he was king, he could get rid of her husband. But he had a dream that night. He heard these horrible sounds arising in his dream. They were human sounds but he couldn't understand what they were saying. And he was very frightened by this dream and woke terrified. He went to a Brahman and the Brahman said he had to do a lot of sacrifices to please the gods. And so, as all these animals were being led to be sacrificed, Queen Mallika became aware of it and asked King Pasenadi what was happening. The Buddha had worked on eliminating animal sacrifices, and so she knew that the Buddha didn't approve of this. When the King told her about his dream she encouraged him to go and see the Buddha, and see how he interpreted it.
So King Pasenadi went to the Buddha, who said, "You heard some people in the lowest hell trying to warn you about your actions, and that if you kill this woman's husband you will be going to hell". He then said, "If you kill these animals then it wouldn't help at all, it would just worsen the situation". And so King Pasenadi stopped the sacrifice, because of Queen Mallika's instruction to go and see the Buddha.
That was one instance where the Buddha interpreted a dream. I don't specifically see where he gave instructions on how to work with dreams. However, Steve and I do, in the sense of teaching students to treat dreams as we would a thought. For example, when waking up from a bad dream, we suggest that you do Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation for anybody in the dream. If there was a specific suffering in the dream, to do Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation for anybody in the world right now who may be experiencing that type of suffering, and for anybody in the world whose life is a bad dream.
Sometimes the dream seems to have meaning. At that time, we can use Wise Reflection to investigate the meaning. I know I have been given instructions from some of my dreams. In one particular dream, I was on the verandah of my little hut and I dreamt that spirits were dragging me off of the verandah and that they were going to kill me. In the dream I got very afraid. So in the dream I noted my fear and started doing Compassion/Lovingkindness for these spirits. This was all in the dream. And the fear lessened. But I realized that in the dream I was doing Compassion/ Lovingkindness so that they wouldn't kill me, and so my intention was not totally pure. So I decided in the dream that, oh well, they are going to kill me anyway, so let me get ready to die. So I reflected on the good qualities of the Buddha, because that's my favorite reflection to get ready to die. And at that time there was a brilliant light, and all the spirits disappeared, and there was peacefulness. That's when I woke up. I realized at that time that Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation when I'm in a difficult situation, was not as powerful as reflecting on the Buddha for me. Reflection on the Buddha helps me to accept a situation rather than trying to change it so much.