Dreaming in Color
 

I thought about this because of a dream lurkette told me about yesterday.

You know the statistic that like one person in ten dreams in color? Here's what I've noticed. Whenever you bring that up, it seems like everybody always claims to dream in color, and has some vividly colorful moment of a dream that they can use as evidence.

I know I do. I had a dream a few months ago with a bright green carpet in it.

I'm suspecting that it's not one in ten PEOPLE that dream in color, but rather one in ten DREAMS that have color in them. Because most of the dreams I remember (which isn't a lot), I don't remember anything in particular about colors in the dream.

So how about you? Do you dream in color? How do you know?

Related question: How can people have dreamt in black and white before photography was invented? They'd have had no idea what black and white was! Discuss.

I recall almost nothing of my dreams. I do recall seeing colors on occasion, and I remember tasting as well.

Hmmm... I remember visual imagery from my dreams exactly the same way I remember things I've seen in real life, and they're always in full color.

It's an interesting theory. Where did you get the one-in-ten statistic? I've never heard of it before.

When it's dark, you see in black and white.
Chacoal drawings and lithographs have also been around for a while, so people would have known about monochromatic images.

As for the colours...now that you mention it, I can't remember colours in my dreams. But I can't remember a conspicuous lack of colour either. In fact, I'm not real good with remembering dreams at all.

I've always wondered...how do they actually measure stuff like this? Just from people's memories of their own dreams?
Dream research is a crazy field...I'd love to do a bit of it some time.

I remember some dreams and to be totally honest,the one's that have color in them are the bad and bizzare ones.
At least lately anyway.
I don't have that many of them but...

On a side note too the weird dreams occur mainly after getting up then going back to bed.
ie: getting up for a piss etc.

Dreams have been freaking me out in recent times for some reason.

I can remember a few dreams in full color, but usually they are pretty washed out. Not entirely black and white, but just muddy and desaturated. Or maybe it's just my bad memory, I'm not really sure. It feels like I rarely remember my dreams, but the ones I do stick with me for a long time.

my dreams tend to be VERY real and colr, taste, feeling all of that is very prominent. I do remember alot of my dreams and they even tend to build on one another. I can pick up a dream that i had the night before and it continues on.

The best wasy to do this is to THINK about the dream before you go to sleep. If you want to dream about a paticular subject, say it 100 times very slow before going to bed as you are relaxed and laying in the bed.

I have a very good control of what i dream about and find it kind of like a game. I dont know how easy this is for others though.

I am the same way. I can basilcy control what I dream about and a little of what goes on in my dreams.

Yes, I'd say first that we can know nothing about what our minds would have been like if not for the media that trains our minds to operate the way they do,

Second, unless we have spent a great deal of time and serious effort in paying attention to our minds, we have no idea how they operate and are filled with delusional ideas. You can see that is true nearly every time someone speaks.

Every dream, illusion, etc... I have had has been in full color. They say the reason for more people being able to visualize in color is due to the color TV. I don't know if this is true, but it is something to think about.

once I go "lucid" it's in color

color... one lucid dream i had in Spain... aurora on the ceiling behind a fly.. aurora was that eerie green.... :) 2 days later I saw it over Greenland on the plane... same color

i dream in colour.
i remember quite a bit of my dreams (i wonder what percentage of my dreams i remember?)

i even remember some dreams where colour has been significant in the progression of the dream... like i think it was a dark red just after i dreamt i was in some car crash...

lucky that never eventuated.

i can´t imagine dreaming in black and white. i think that would mean that something was different in your colour perception.

i wonder how someone with colour blindness dreams? i suppose the colour i their dreams would be as restricted as in waking life.

i never used to remeber anything about a dream... but lately ive been having dreams where im at work and things are different or and wierd shit is happening, or im somewhere else and theres people from work... i think my brain is way to used to work :( i need to watch a but load of simpsons family guy, futurama, and some stuff with tara ried... i bet that would fix my dreams :D

Interesting! Even if they did dream in color (or saw in their dreams the colors that they're blind to) they wouldn't have the vocabulary to describe the colors they saw. Like a blind person has no idea what "red" means. They know it's a "color" (whatever that is), but they have no experience of it.

i see nothing in my dreams

I have never had a black and white dream. I think that all mine are in colour although sometimes it is dark. My dreams are always really vivid though (which is good).

My dreams are always in color, but also extremely out-of-focus.
My theory is that my brain remembers that I take off my glasses just before bed.
Very strange.

I have also heard the 1 in 10 statistic. I thought it was weird because I've always dreamed in color. I'd love to have a b/w dream, though.

hmm, I dont ever remember having a black and white dream... Im now working on lucid dreaming.

I too have heard of the statistic.

It is a strange coincidence that you mentioned this phenomenon - just this morning I had a vivid dream where I was on a tropical island and there were like 100 small ships of varying time period, style, etc ... and they had such beautiful colours that I ran to grab my digital camera (in my dream! weird) .. and I remember thinking to myself: should I shoot RAW or sRGB to capture these colours best.

Crazy.

For as long as I can remember, I have always dreamt in colour. In fact, I can not understand how people would dream in B&W. What a joy kill!

:p

I *very* rarely remember my dreams and of those that I vaguely remember I can not recall if they were in colour or not.

I recall dreaming in color and in black and white. When I was younger, even though I don't remember positive, I swear that my dreams were in cartoon/comic style. I've had dreams with credits too, haha

I have always dreamed in color, just the night before I dreamed I was in the middle of a desert and it was so vivid in reds, oranges and yellows..

I dream in purple!

a few days ago i had a really vivid dream, like REALLY VIVID. i could feel my body tumbling (not falling, but like a summersault) then i came to a stopp and saw a door and started to move towards it and then i woke up. i had been asleep maybe 5-10 minutes. it was very exciting cause it felt awesome and so real. i saw the doors - same dream twice sorta, different door the second time - but they were very colorful and real compared to other dreams. now i can only imagine the colors as i do in my regular dreams but it is still sorta there.

i hope people understand this, its really difficult to explain. all i can say is that i had my arm resting over my head as i was sleeping, this is an unusual sleep position for me.

as far as i can remember, all of my dreams have been in color. go fig. and i dream heavily every night - it makes waking up in the morning a real bitch.

I never thought that people didn't dream in color, that's weird. I always just assumed that my dreams were in color, I'll try to notice if they aren't.

Just wondering where you got the statistic.