Do you dream in colour or black and white? Here’s what the science says

How common is it to dream in colour? Photo / 123rf

The question:

Is it true that some people dream in colour and others in black and white?

The science:

It was once believed that most people dreamed mostly in black and white, and colour dreaming was thought to be associated with psychological issues. Science has since dispelled those myths.

While dreaming in black and white is not uncommon, many people dream in colour much of the time. A 2017 study showed that participants reported color in nearly 50% of their dreams, with black and white dreaming reported only 10% of the time. For 40% of the dreams, dreamers could not recall whether there were any colours.

The tendency to dream in grey scale or colour may be influenced in part by age and when people grew up. Up until the 1950s, research suggests, a large majority of people surveyed said they only occasionally, rarely or never dreamed in colour, referred to at the time as “technicolour” dreams in the scientific community. That seemed to change with the advent of colour TV.

A 2008 study found that people older than age 55 - who may have grown up without a colour TV - reported dreaming in colour only about 34% of the time, whereas those younger than 25 said they did so about 68% of the time. Both the older and younger age groups reported similar results when it came to not remembering the colours in their dreams, nearly 18% and 15%, respectively.

The inability to remember whether dreams are in colour may indicate that our minds prioritise other aspects of our dreams. “It may be a matter of attention and memory,” said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist who studies dreams at Harvard Medical School and author of The Committee of Sleep.

For instance, Barrett said, after dining at a restaurant, a customer is not likely to remember the colour of the server’s shirt. That does not mean the shirt lacked colour, but the colour was not noticed and committed to memory. Sleeping and waking worlds are thought to be similar in that way, she said.

And that may be more noticeable as we age. In 2011, researchers published findings from two surveys, conducted 16 years apart, showing that about 80% of participants younger than age 30 reported colour in their dreams, but it dropped to about 20% by age 60.

In general, dream recall, including the level of detail, declines with age, Barrett said.

What else you should know:

The most commonly reported colours observed in dreams are black, white and red, which has been associated with love, blood, flesh and fire, said Kelly Bulkeley, a dream researcher, author and founder of the Sleep and Dream Database, which includes more than 40,000 dream entries.

Barrett said some people have even reported seeing unrealistic colours - such as people with blue arms - or colours that do not exist in the waking world.

Colours often hold significance for the dreamer, signalling that an object in colour is important, Barrett said.

And colours may be more significant for some people than for others.

“Dreams are highly subjective and often reflect the dreamer’s life and their daily interactions,” Eti Ben Simon, a senior research scientist in the Centre for Human Sleep Science at the University of California at Berkeley, said in an email. “For instance, if someone is working as a painter, colours in dreams might hold greater meaning relative to someone who is somewhat indifferent to colours overall.”

The bottom line:

Many people dream in colour, but research suggests that colour dreaming as well as the ability to remember the colours may vary based in part on age and when people grew up.