Does Anybody Else Dream in Color?

[Dangerously Amused]

I have a lot of crazy, vivid dreams in color, and I remember a lot of them. Then on one occasion a few years ago I had a dream in black and white. It kind of freaked me out. So I told a friend who is a counselor about it. She said, "Oh, you dream in color? That's pretty uncommon." I thought she was joking, but she said she wasn't. So since then I've always wondered how many other people dream in color. Anybody?

[grannylib]

1. all the time. been having strange ones lately too, but almost always in

color.

[skygazer]

2. I always dream in color

It never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't. Why wouldn't you? Hmmmm.... this may call for some research.....

[Heidi]

3. Of course, and I don't know anyone who _doesn't_ dream in color. (nt)

[arwalden]

4. Always... When I Was A Teenager, I'd Dream In B/W Or Muted Colors...

... but now, everything is as colorful as real life.

[GOPisEvil]

5. Yes, but I rarely see people's faces.

:shrug:

[Dangerously Amused]

8. That's funny, my dreams are almost completely populated by strangers.

It is a rare occasion when I dream about anyone I know, even family.

How weird is that?!






Edited for spelling, dammit. "Weird" gets me every time!

[GOPisEvil]

11. I think most people in dreams are representative of something else.

THat's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

[Wapsie B]

12. Yeah me too.

especially when I have a *cough cough* more romantic dream.

[djeseru]

25. Gosh, same here...

...almost always strangers too. Usually everyone I"ve told about that thinks it's odd!

Now I know it's not.

[GOPisEvil]

28. Well, if it is odd, then at least we have company.

:D

[skygazer]

6. From the International Association for the Study of Dreams

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxeduq_and_a.htm

"Most dreams are in color, although people may not be aware of it, either because they have difficulty remembering their dreams or because color is such a natural part of visual experience. People who are very aware of color while awake probably notice color more often in their dreams."

[TroubleMan]

7. My dreams are always color.

I've never had a b/w one as far as I know. I'm surprised to learn it's uncommon. I would think that I would wake up from a b/w dream because I wouldn't believe it. I've woken up from dreams before because I thought....wow this is too outrageous, this must be a dream....then I woke up. I'd expect the same thing would happen if I dreamed in b/w.

[huskerlaw]

9. Yes, nearly always.

That's uncommon? Wow...interesting. I also remember a fairly large percentage of them.

[tjdee]

10. I always dream in color--why wouldn't everyone?

I too have heard that most people dream in black and white, but that doesn't make sense to me at all. As someone above posted, it would seem to me that everyone dreams in color but that some just don't notice.

[billyskank]

13. My dreams are just like being awake

until I wake up and realise it was just a dream.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

14. I always dream in color

My dreams are very fragmented, including bits and pieces of information I've picked up during recent days. It's fun to try to piece the dream together and make sense of it.

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. (Raising Hand) Dreams In Color! ...and more!

My dreams frequently include tactile, scent and auditory sensations. I rarely have disturbing dreams, remember dreaming almost every night, and experience lucid dreaming where I can either make a concious choice to change the actions in the dream, or can go back to the dream after briefly waking up to change what had been happening in that dream.

Dreams? I Love it! LOVE IT!

HELEN MADDEN - The Joyologist

[Fox Mulder]

16. I usually dream some mundane event in the future.

It's really weird, but I do, and yes, it's in color!

Creepy, eh?

Edit: I should probably start up a dream journal...

[Whoa_Nelly]

23. Or share those dreams with someone

When I have precognitive dreams, I usually tell someone about them. Those particular dreams have a different aura or clarity to them. My family and friends know this about me, and usually take my dreams as something that will happen. Unfortunately, the majority of those types of dreams I have are about someone's death in the near future, or an event that is not good.

For example: I dreamed about a rape taking place at night in a car parked beside my home involving two girls and three men, (I lived on a street corner at the time). I wrote the dream down and told a couple of friends about it, as well as having them read my written dream recall. One night, five months later, I heard screams and fighting coming from one of two cars parked beside my house. I looked out the window and saw one girl being beaten by two men in one car...she was the one screaming for help. In the other car was another girl being dragged and being forcibly moved to the other car by another man. I called 911, reported RAPE, and being in a very small town, the cops were there in less than two minutes. The guys were arrested and hauled off, and the girls were rescued. And when I say "girls", these two kids were only about 14-15 years old.

Anyway...I do believe in precognitive dreaming...has been happening to me since I was very young. You never know what may seem as mundane in a dream could actually carry import for you or someone else. :)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

17. Always in color...

They used to say that if you dreamed in color then you're psychotic. Such BS.
Duckie

[DS1]

18. I don't believe anyone dreams in black and white

in fact I think it's a BS floater put out there as a catch-all to make people feel special and unique.

Oh, you dream in color? How neat!

It's crap. Why would the brain bother to strip the color out of everything you've ever seen?

[Dangerously Amused]

19. Awww...

"in fact I think it's a BS floater put out there as a catch-all to make people feel special and unique.

Oh, you dream in color? How neat!"


There goes my feeling special!

:cry:

[trackfan]

20. Always

[Deja Q]

21. Mine are in vivid, oversaturated color. The new Fujichrome chip helped!

:rofl:

[DanCa]

29. Matrix or Manchurian Candidate ?

[Neil Lisst]

22. I always dream in color, can't imagine any other way.

has always been that way

[gollygee]

24. Doesn't everyone dream in color?

I always thought it was an urban myth that most people dream in black and white. I dream in color.

[djeseru]

26. Most always in color.

I did go through a monochromatic period for a little. Just full of strangers and the deja vu buildings & locations.

[DanCa]

27. First time I took my miraprex meds i dreamt in color that i ate a cow

I was walking around the jewel grocery store and there was this spotted brown cow and i just opened my mouth and started chomping. The worst part after the moo on the first bite - was that the damn thing kept looking at me with its cowy eyes. Now i can't eat hamburgers again.
The next night I had a dream i was trapped in a house of blood.
The walls floor furniture everything was solid blood -like jello - then it started really flowing all around me. The next visit the meds were cut in half quick. yeah these were in color.

[ComerPerro]

30. I thought everyone did.

Honestly, though, my dreams are so realistic that I barely recognize or remember them...

My dreams are quite lame.

Seriously.

I dream that I'm at work, or going to the store, etc...

[Z_I_Peevey]

31. I have never understood how dreams, which have

apparently been a component of human thought processing for eons, could be in "black and white," a concept that really didn't come along until photography.

[wildhorses]

32. sometimes I dream in b/w but,

most of the time I dream in color. Before insomnia that is. Now, with the Ambien I don't dream at all but, I will take sleep anyway I can get it...

[Zhade]

33. Yes. I'm also a natural lucid dreamer.

www.dreamviews.com - for all your lucid dreaming needs!

[darkism]

44. Natural lucid dreamer?

Meaning that 100% of your dreams are lucid without any effort on your part?

You are SO FREAKING LUCKY. THAT'S special.

That would make me look forward to going to bed, instead of sitting up at 2 am on DU. :p

[Zhade]

47. No, not 100%. It just means lucidity happens quite easily for me.

I have, on average, half a dozen lucid dreams a week, without using exercises like those detailed at the site I mentioned. When I use the exercises (which I perform daily, especially the "Reality Check" exercise), this number can triple or even quadruple. Plus, my control is better and better. The first time you decide to fly while lucid is indescribable.

I'm not sure what makes a person a natural lucid dreamer, but the neat thing about LDs is that just about anyone can learn how to prompt them to occur. And the fact that it's quite scientific and not at all mythical or supernatural is one of the coolest things about it.

Check out the site, it's really useful and full of great information!

[histohoney]

34. Both my mother and I do.

We had a friend how is a physiologist tell us that people only dream in black and white. My mom replied," Just because your dreams are limited, don't try to limit ours. You have dream envy, Pete.".

[frogmarch]

35. until cameras

were invented, I don't see how anyone could have dreamed in black-and-white. I can't imagine anyone visualizing (incl in dreams) something in black-and-white who hasn't seen black-and-white photos.

[Left Is Write]

36. I dream in color. It doesn't sound particularly uncommon to me.

[bigwillq]

37. Sometimes color

my color dreams are always my most vivid so I like when I dream in color! :)

[pitohui]

38. everyone dreams in color

why would anyone dream in black/white, think of the logic of it, the unsophisticated brain which hasn't ever seen a b/w movie or tv show doesn't even immediately recognize pictures in b/w instead of in color because it's unnatural, when we create dreams, it's based on a crazy mix of our experiences so of course it's in color, it's not a damn art film project, it's a dream :-)

yr friend the counselor is clearly unqualified to comment on dreams if she isn't teasing, which i strongly believe she is

[Dangerously Amused]

40. The Logic of It All...

Well, I did think about the logic of it all, at least the points you made and what seemed logical to me as well, which is why I questioned the counselor at first as to whether she was teasing me or not. But there are several posters here now who have said that they at least occasionally dream in B&W, as did some other people I queried about this subject over the years.

So I've thought about this from a couple of perspectives. Like, obviously people who have been colorblind since birth will dream in B&W. Since the person can still SEE okay (just not color), we know that the mechanical identification of color is a function of the eye and not the brain. But what if some eye problem caused a person to become colorblind in middle age? Then the apparatus for seeing color - the rods and cones in the eye - would cease to function, but the area in the brain that "interprets/assigns" color would still be intact and functional, right? So could the person still "remember" colors, and "see" them in their imagination and/or dreams? It seems to me that they could, since all information is coded into the brain as electrical impulses, and "color" would be just another set of impulses, right along with shape and dimension, etc.

Also, I think it must be true that the brain can manipulate color information independently from the eye because when we are dreaming something, we are not actually seeing it, so our brain is simply assigning a color to an imaginary "object". So if the brain can manipulate color information independently of the eye, what is to say that a person who sees in color might have a brain which, for whatever reason, does not assign color information to images in dreams?

I think the poster above who thought that people to whom color matters more in everyday life (like artists) would tend to dream in color, whereas others to whom color is less of an issue would not, may be onto something in this respect. I mean obviously the brain decides what you will dream about, so maybe a part of that process is deciding how you dream it as well. In other words, maybe if the color of something is important to the dream, the brain will assign the proper "color," but if color isn't important, the brain doesn't bother. Unless one is a "color-sensitive" person, one to whom color is very important all the time, in which case the brain always dreams in color.

Well I honestly don't have any answers and am just thinking out loud. And please, if anyone sees any holes in my logic here, by all means point them out. I appreciate learning from others, even if it means they prove me wrong!

[NNadir]

39. I dream in crude child-like stick figures.

[Dangerously Amused]

46. ...seriously?

I mean...seriesly?

[snowbear]

41. Freaky you asked that...

Cause I woke up this morning.. after having some weird ass nightmares all night.. and I thought to myself "I really do dream in color!"

I remembered looking at the blood running down my arm while fighting off some creepy woman that was coming after me.. :scared:

Anyway.. it was JUST today that I realized.. yeah, I dream in color! How ironic you asked this of all days.. :)

[Scooter24]

42. Always in color

[fizzgig]

43. i dream in color

but moreover, i sometimes dream only in sound or sensation...or sometimes i dream only in words...

but i've been drinking rum, so who cares?

[darkism]

45. Yes. Interesting how I found out, too.

I dream in color. If you REALLY want to know how I know this...





Yes, it's very weird and I've never told anyone.







Anyway, one day I asked myself while awake "I wonder if I dream in color. I can't really remember."

That night, I dreamt that I was using the bathroom and was ...expelling...a liquid with every vibrant color in the rainbow.

Question answered!


I told you it was weird.

[ContraBass Black]

48. always.

[philosophie_en_rose]

49. I always dream in color and it's scary sometimes.

Sometimes I can't tell that I'm dreaming and then something frightening happens. The other night, I dreamt that all of my teeth fell out. And two weeks after graduating, I dreamt that I forgot to turn my thesis in. :scared: