Do You Dream In Colors or In Black/White?

[tblood]

I came across bits of information saying that only creative, special folks dream in colors (about 15-20% of people) What the case is with every one of you?

Roll fellas...

[Randomnity]

(reliable) source?

I don't know anyone who doesn't ever dream in colour, though I've heard the saying too.

[AwesomeCakes]

I am a creative type and I dream in color, and they are often lucid.

I read this somewhere also.

I haven't come across anyone that dreams in black and white. 0o

[Bella]

I don't remember any color. I don't remember black and white either.

[Jack Flak]

Color.

[Uberfuhrer]

I often don't remember my dreams, but all the dreams I've ever had have been in color.

I thought that was the way everyone was.

The original post is not boosting my ego any.

[spirilis]

um, yeah, color. Don't really consider myself that 'creative' at least not in a visual sense.

[ajblaise]

Shouldn't people has stopped dreaming in black & white since after 1960?

My dreams are in 4d, you all have some catching up to do.

[Uberfuhrer]

Shouldn't people has stopped dreaming in black & white since after 1960?

My dreams are in 4d, you all have some catching up to do.

The world has been in color a lot longer than that. It had to have started around 1917. Where the world started to develop reds and greens, but no blues.

[PinkPiranha]

3D Technicolor with Smell-O-Vision

[ajblaise]

The world has been in color a lot longer than that. It had to have started around 1932.

Yeah but when did it become the norm?

[Uberfuhrer]

Yeah but when did it become the norm?

I think it became the norm around that time. Maybe 1934.

But before that, it was a two colors (red and green).

A lot of artists born before a Technicolor world painted in color, but a lot of artists were also insane.

[PinkPiranha]

You live in color. Why wouldn't you dream in color?

[Bella]

I don't remember dreaming in colour or black and white.

[Angry Ayrab]

I never heard of anyone that dreamed in black and white. That would be cool hear about.

Just a quick question: Do any of you guys ever realize that you are dreaming in a dream and are still able to continue the dream. I seriously have had this happen to me on more than one occasion, and when I tell it to friends they call bullshit on me.

[ajblaise]

I think it became the norm around that time. Maybe 1934.

But before that, it was a two colors (red and green).

A lot of artists born before a Technicolor world painted in color, but a lot of artists were also insane.

Weren't shows like the Johnny Carson show still in black & white even in the early 60s? That's an example of what I'm thinking about when I say norm.

[Anja]

Sometimes my dreams are in black and white but with something of significance in color.

It's nearly impossible to explain in words as it really isn't black and white at all. More like a gestalt of no color at all with something of importance being more than color.

Sometimes my dreams are multisensory and other times more like visual ideas.

Maybe fourth dimensional is a good descriptor.

[whatever]

color, and worse yet sensation *shudder*

I kinna hate to sleep, which is cool since I rarely do I guess! ;)

[disregard]

Colors. Very vivid.

[AwesomeCakes]

I never heard of anyone that dreamed in black and white. That would be cool hear about.

Just a quick question: Do any of you guys ever realize that you are dreaming in a dream and are still able to continue the dream. I seriously have had this happen to me on more than one occasion, and when I tell it to friends they call bullshit on me.

Yes hun. You mean lucid dreams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreams). I have them every other dream.

[Anja]

I sometimes have lucid dreams.

[ajblaise]

Yes hun. You mean lucid dreams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreams). I have them every other dream.

Me too, to some degree at least.

My favorite one: I had played GTA all day, and when I went to sleep I was in some huge generic city just getting shit done...driving trucks, shooting people.. and since it was very lucid in the 2nd half of the dream, I would jump in the air thousands of feet and and land perfectly.. anything I could envision doing, I'd do.

Unfortunately all my lucid dreams seem to end when I try to get laid in them...

[AwesomeCakes]

They're really intense for me. It seems I get them more often during times when I am depressed, or extremely stressed.

[AwesomeCakes]

Me too, to some degree at least.

My favorite one: I had played GTA all day, and when I went to sleep I was in some huge generic city just getting shit done...driving trucks, shooting people.. and since it was very lucid in the 2nd half of the dream, I would jump in the air thousands of feet and and land perfectly.. anything I could envision doing, I'd do.

Hahaha. Sounds awesome. I like the ones where I feel like I'm flying ^^

Unfortunately all my lucid dreams seem to end when I try to get laid in them...
Same. xD

[Silently Honest]

I can feel touch and pain in dreams and you ask me about color?

[colmena]

I'm not really aware of how dreams look.

I can tell you that I've played with a yellow ball and flirted with a girl with a green sweater (in my dreams).

This was my initial reaction, however:

I don't remember any color. I don't remember black and white either.

---

Plenty of lucid dream sex. Messy mornings.

[Anja]

I've noticed that thing with video games also. If I spend a lot of time playing one sometimes that night I'll play it in my dreams. Oddly enough, the next day I frequently have a breakthough to a new level, almost as though my head was practicing by itself the night before!

[ajblaise]

I've noticed that thing with video games also. If I spend a lot of time playing one sometimes that night I'll play it in my dreams. Oddly enough, the next day I frequently have a breakthough to a new level, almost as though my head was practicing by itself the night before!

Yeah it's a cool phenomenon. The weirdest one was when I used to play AOE all the time. It was like I was overlooking some kind of AOE-style civilization grow and fight each other.. really detailed and bizarre.

[AwesomeCakes]

I've noticed that thing with video games also. If I spend a lot of time playing one sometimes that night I'll play it in my dreams. Oddly enough, the next day I frequently have a breakthough to a new level, almost as though my head was practicing by itself the night before!

I read somewhere that when we *sleep* our brain processes all of the events from that day, analyzes them, and they come through in the form of a dream. Something like that. I like to break down the symbols I see in my dreams, and they are often quite accurate in pertaining to my waking situation.

Anywho, I do that too ^^

[Anja]

I wonder if that's just an En thing.

[Tallulah]

Yeah, I think the "Most people dream in black and white" thing has got to be a myth.

[colmena]

Dreams seem more like memories to me. I can 'picture' things for context, but I can't really say it is either with or without colour.

[sanveane]

I wonder if that's just an En thing.

I have them too....

EDIT: Color, haven't met anyone who dreams in black and white as yet.

[Anja]

I do know that I definitely hash over things which are puzzling me. And just like in dreaming about video games, I sometimes have a breakthrough after the dream.

And once in a blue moon I'll have a fire dream. That usually means "Pay attention! Right now!" The fire is always very vivd. Someone told me that that represents sexual turmoil, but I'm not sure about that in the context of the type of dreams. More about relationship difficulties.

[Eldanen]

I've only had a single black-and-white dream, and that was during an episode of sleep paralysis late one afternoon when I was napping. All my other dreams have been in color. (Sometimes highly saturated color, too.) My dreams have been in CG animation style, cartoons. I've also had dreams where I was a figure in an isometric computer game.

[Kyrielle]

I came across bits of information saying that only creative, special folks dream in colors (about 15-20% of people) What the case is with every one of you?

Roll fellas...

I dream in colours. Sometimes they are muted, sometimes they are oversaturated. I even get very intricate plays of light and shadow happening in my dreams. In that way they are like movies, but I suspect this only happens because I'm visually and mentally sensitive to how light falls on things.

I think my mother and brother both dream in colour--except I think my brother would have an absence of green and red since he's colourblind to those hues and has never known what they really look like aside from a sepia tone.

I don't think any of the three of us are particularly special, but we are all creative in our own ways.

I don't think I've ever had a dream in black and white... I know I've had a dream in all varying shades of red, but never a complete absence of colour.

It doesn't make sense that most people wouldn't dream in colour. Colour plays such a vital part of our everyday lives that it would, surely, become infused in the part of the subconscious that creates dream imagery.

On that note, what do blind people dream about? What do they see? Do they see anything? Or get a vague impression of what happened?

[Martoon]

I dream in color, because I remember several of my dreams where the focus of the dream was some particular vibrant color(s).

Yeah, I think the "Most people dream in black and white" thing has got to be a myth.
Agreed. We have rods in our eyes that sense only luminance, and cones that sense the separate red/green/blue wavelengths, but I'm pretty sure it isn't processed or stored in the brain as separate luminance and hue. I don't see any reason our brains would have a concept of just luminance, just for dreams.


Just a quick question: Do any of you guys ever realize that you are dreaming in a dream and are still able to continue the dream. I seriously have had this happen to me on more than one occasion, and when I tell it to friends they call bullshit on me.
Yes hun. You mean lucid dreams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreams). I have them every other dream.
I used to practice lucid dreaming all the time back in my younger days. There are daytime exercises you can do to encourage it, and in-dream exercises to maintain it. I actually quit practicing it after a while, because I got a little too good at it, and it started freaking me out a bit (you're always questioning whether you might be dreaming right now). If you're interested, check out LUCID DREAMING (http://www.lucidity.com/).

and since it was very lucid in the 2nd half of the dream, I would jump in the air thousands of feet and and land perfectly.. anything I could envision doing, I'd do.

Unfortunately all my lucid dreams seem to end when I try to get laid in them...
You can do some pretty amazing things (like jumping thousands of feet), but if you try to get too unrealistic, your higher cognitive functions take over, and the dream ends.

[INTJMom]

I came across bits of information saying that only creative, special folks dream in colors (about 15-20% of people) What the case is with every one of you?

Roll fellas...
I think my dreams have some color, but maybe not as vivid as real life.

[Beat]

I only dream in color...

[kyuuei]

... Sometimes I think that'll be the closest I get to colorblind, is dreaming. I can recognize colors in the dream, but I still cannot be certain that I dream in ALL color or black and white.. it just sort of IS. and my mind just KNOWS what it is suppose to be.. so I cant tell if I am seeing the color, or assuming the color all the time.

[YourLocalJesus]

I dream in color. Especially strong greens, cyan and crimson. I don't know why those colors are often present, but they are :) All others are present, but those colors are often in abundance and very brilliant. Anyone here some kind of dream interpreter? ^^
Might mean I have repressed memories from my childhood or something :D

Does anyone else have colors in their dreams that seem to be dominant?

[Anja]

You can do some pretty amazing things (like jumping thousands of feet), but if you try to get too unrealistic, your higher cognitive functions take over, and the dream ends.

I got that! I was doing a little mentoring once upon a time and I must have been really pumped about it.

Lots of positive stuff going on. And I started having these lucid dreams. I started out by myself and I'd take a step or two and bounce. Then again. a little higher each time. Sort of like walking on the moon. Then I discovered, by focusing my will, I could levitate there. At first it took considerable effort but after a few dreams like that I could sometimes just "think" myself to rise.

So I got this group of women together then and gave them a pep talk. We can do this together! Let's do it! And little by little we started to rise. The looks on the faces were thrilling. Energy was floating back and forth and we were rising, rising.

Then one woman said, "This is stoopid. Women can't do this." And. . .

It felt like a balloon slowly deflating and we gradually drifted back down with sadness permeating the air.

I was dang mad at her! (Me?)

[Thursday]

i dream in colors and my senses are acitve-touch mostly
i can also control myself in my dreams
i recall teaching myself how to fly in my dreams
since then-i rarely dream

[Negative_]

both.

when in colors, they're usually either extremely vivid or very dull and faded.

[wolfy]

Colour

I had a dream last night I was in an office watching some Japanese CEO doing his work. Suddenly he changed form to caramel popcorn, not one big one but a lot of them stuck together. Then he yelled "Oh no they'll eat me" and ran out of the office, but as he was running the popcorn was falling away and being eaten by the workers who were unaware where they were from.

This dream was in full colour and Japanese.

[Mitzy]

who the heck dreams in black & white..

[prplchknz]

color and this thread would be perfect for a poll. Just saying

[placebo]

Normal colours I suppose, but they're not usually important/significant

[hathor_sekhmet]

The only dream I had in black and white was very frightening -- I was lost in a land of clocks and my friend turned into a skeleton and tried to eat me.

I often have dreams in which I have to taste-test things, usually sweet things. Last night I had to taste-test several fruit punches. They each tasted slightly different. Does anyone else have taste dreams?

[MuraKoji]

Depends.

Sometimes it can be black and/or white if I don't remember, and sometimes can be colorful when I remember. I've read a theory said that if someone's dream black, white and/or doesn't have color, it's more likely you don't remember the dream.

To be honest, I mostly tend to forget my dream.

[LostInNerSpace]

Are you awake in color or black and white? It doesn’t seem to make sense to think in those terms. Dreams are another form of consciousness. It’s the same brain conjuring up your reality, just not directly through your senses. Anyone here been on SSRIs? I got dreams so real I could not tell the difference between reality and dream. I don't have dreams that vivid any more. It could be that the drug enhances the dreaming mechanism, but it is still the same mechanism.

[Anja]

For a period of time I took an antidepressant for Seasonal Affective Disorder. I think it's an SSRI. It caused sleep paralysis and hynogogic hallucinations. Ugh. Real screamers, they were.

It was like being asleep with your eyes open. Green faces floating all around the room. Looked like illustrations from Charles Kingsley's "Water Babies." The icky goblins that lay squashed under the rocks beneath the ocean?

Yes, I definitely had quite an experience with that particular drug. Were yours also nightmares?

[entropie]

Dreams suck !

They steal the peace of your mind even while you are asleep

[LostInNerSpace]

Yes, I definitely had quite an experience with that particular drug. Were yours also nightmares?

No nightmares that I remember. Certainly nothing as bad as yours.

I did remember doing things that I could not possibly have done. I only knew they were dreams because the context made absolutely no sense.

[V Profane]

Colour. I'd notice grey nipples.

[mlittrell]

im creative and i can either not remember my dreams or when i do they are not visual at all. they are always just feelings. like, if im falling in a dream, i dont see myself falling but i sense that im falling (in 3rd person...always) and when i look to see myself, its just an aura of myself. its quite weird.

also define creativity. creativity can be random and structureless or structure itself can be creative.

[ygolo]

Black and white dreams are very rare for me.


Just a quick question: Do any of you guys ever realize that you are dreaming in a dream and are still able to continue the dream. I seriously have had this happen to me on more than one occasion, and when I tell it to friends they call bullshit on me.

They're not that different from when I am vividly day-dreaming, except I am lying down and feel a lot more rested afterward.

It is really common for me. In fact, almost all the dreams that I remember is of this sort.

Invariably the last dream I have before I wake-up (if I remember having at least one) is one of this sort. Not only do I know I am dreaming, I can usually control what is happening in the dream too.

im creative and i can either not remember my dreams or when i do they are not visual at all. they are always just feelings. like, if im falling in a dream, i dont see myself falling but i sense that im falling (in 3rd person...always) and when i look to see myself, its just an aura of myself. its quite weird.


I used to have these things I called "dot dreams," because the visual component tended to simple dots (usually black-and-white now that I think about it); sometimes nothing about them changed visually throughout the whole dream but I would simply feel changes in intensity. Really nothing else, not even sensations per say, or music or anything. Just changes in intensity, and quite intricate changes in intensity. The dreams could be quite long.

[Angry Ayrab]

Yo mama's so old... SHE DREAMS IN BLACK IN WHITE BIATCH.

[Anja]

I'm so old I dream in day-glo. Faaaar out, Man!

Heh.

Forgot to name the drug. I believe it was Sinequan.

Yeah. Those "dot dreams?" I get that kind of stuff when I've had ether. Haven't noticed it with the modern anesthetics. All kindsa geometric patterns behind my eyes. Shoulda called the stuff an "anaesthetic." Boring, those geometric patterns. . .

[V Profane]

Oh wait, I mean; I dream in beige, why'd you leave me so far now?

[amigone]

I've read the opposite - that people often dream in colour, and that dreaming in black and white could be a sign that the person isn't feeling all that well. I don't know how true or false that statement is.

Myself, I can only remember dreaming in colour.

fun to read: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/DreamReportRepl011022.pdf

[dnivera]

What a coincidence that we're on this topic! Last night I had the most vivid dream where I could see and smell everything in vivid detail. I was in a dollhouse with bright blue wallpaper, pink carpet and 60s furniture. I could see the intricate patterns of the lace doilies on the coffee table and the reflection of light off the brown lacquer on the old-fashioned style of the TV and radio. The bright colors stayed with me all day today. Then I was in a buffet-style dining hall and choosing what kind of food to eat, and I could see the juices on the roast ham and the steam of the asparagus in vivid detail.

I usually don't have such extrasensory dreams.

[Argus2968]

60-70% of the time i dream in color. the rest of the time... it's neither color nor black and white. it's hard to describe. sepia, maybe?
sometimes there is scent. often there is taste.
dreams have always been weird for me. sometimes i get stuck in them for days and wake up completely exhausted.
i've never been able to dream lucidly, at least, not to the point where i can manifest my own "reality".

[Synarch]

60-70% of the time i dream in color. the rest of the time... it's neither color nor black and white. it's hard to describe. sepia, maybe?

I was just going to say this... about the sepia. I'm actually convinced that since there's no real visual input, the idea of dreaming in color is a red herring. It's essentially a meaningless question. Your brain may be thinking things are in color (as this is the default perception of the external world), but since your eyes are not seeing, there's no color, no matter what. When you close your eyes and visualize something, is it in color? It's probably a similar experience.

Oh, also, I think the sepia is what our eyes see when they're closed. At least when there's any light.

[AppFzx]

I usually only get black and white + one color per dream if I get to have a color. I had a really vivid dream about five years ago with two colors. A large explosion partially hidden by a distant mountain (nuclear?) which had a brilliant (black and white) flash followed by a dark-bright-red (hard to explain) sphere of light from it's center which faded out as it expanded. Then I ran inside and saw the tv turn to blue fuzz/static and heard it. (strangely enough, I met someone else who had had almost the exact same dream and we had both blogged about it and neither of us had known about the other's dream before we met)

[Sytpg]

Am I strange for not being able to answer the question? I don't really know actually. I do have a very good idea of what constitutes a sunset-like scenario and a midnight-like scenario in my dreams though so....I don't know :P

[Airius]

I dream in color.
Lots of pretty colors.

[Orangey]

I don't recall ever having dreamt in black and white. It's always color.

[mlittrell]

jeez. man i feel out of place now haha.

[Jeffster]

Every time I see this topic title, "Better Man" by Pearl Jam pops into my head.

[WobblyStilettos]

I tend to dream in quite vivid coloUrs :) I do remember having one dream in black and white though :)

[mlittrell]

screw what i said, i had a dream in ridiculous colors lol. one dream had cavemen, and people with no torso walking around. it was incredibly weird.

[InaF3157]

Color, but not particularly vivid. Or it could be that the weirdness of the plot drowns out any particular impression color would make.

[Wild horses]

I usually dream in colour however, occasionaly I have dreamt in sepia which have been some of my most vivd and memorable dreams. When I did dream in sepia I remember noticing that a different atmosphere was creating in my surroundings

[gloomy-optimist]

The weird thing about my dreams are that I don't usually remember if I dream in color or not :/ I know I do some of the time, at least; there are other times where my dreams might just be too dark or too intricate to remember any color.
I've had a lot of very surreal dreams; people where you couldn't hear them speak, but you know what they say, and where you can't see their faces, but know who they are. Often times, I don't remember any color in these dreams; just a feeling of detachment and isolation.

[01011010]

Color. I've yet to personally hear of anyone that does otherwise.

[ENTJ Extraordinaire]

sigh, i don't often remember dreams, however i am fairly certain those i do remember are in colour...

...except one in particular...from my childhood, in which i was hunted down and murdered, it was in a mix of dark blues and black...no other colours...

so i guess that is something?

[StoryOfMyLife]

Colors. Vivid. My dreams tend to cause me to believe the events are quite real. I've often woken up quite disappointed or confused because I expect to still be in the midst of whatever has been happening. The vividness of my dreams often times causes intense emotion, displayed within where I wouldn't ever display them while awake. I also can wake with the memory of how something felt, texture-wise, or smelled during a dream.

I love to sleep, if only to dream :D

[ByMySword]

I only dream in black and white
I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white
to save me from myself.

Sorry, Iron Maiden got the best of me.

I don't think I do, but who knows?

[Colors]

I only remember two dreams specifically being in black and white. One was a particularly disturbing dream I had as a kid and another was one of those rare movie-themed dreams. Rare in the sense of I wasn't interacting in any way with the characters and felt a detachment from the events- a pure spectator. The scene changes were cool.

Most of the dreams I remember have color (resisting puns), but sometimes I can't say anything plays into my memory that registers a dream as color or black/white.

I think dreams really are your brain working things in backwards. It's strange what random things from your day can get cycled in sometimes- when other things are ignored. The worst dreams are ones about some real-life terrifying event that you'll have to go through at some point in your life. It happens in the dream and it's horrible but you survive... and you wake up and you realize you still haven't survived it yet.

I don't think I really like dreams as a whole. They disturb my emotional state a lot. Which is great when I'm floating on air after a great dream. But twice as awful when it's an unsound one.* And dreams tend to muddle my sense of memory (I've a hard enough time remembering things without confusing dreams for real-life chronology). The best sleep of all is when I just wake up from nREM, feeling fresh and remembering nothing except a brief roll-over in the middle of the night.

*Maybe it's natural to not need happiness explained, but disturbance/unhappiness must be dissected and obsessed-over.

[Edahn]

Yes.

[Introverted-esfp]

in colours, with messed up depictions.

[Eryndil]

I don't tend to remember colours (or black and white) from my dreams - only experiences. For example, the most vivid dream I had was where I was a hostage and they were about to shoot me. I remember being on my knees, hands tied behind me, the gun by my head and the trigger being pulled but I don't remember if there were any colours.

[Leysing]

I dream in colors - though occasionally in black and white, but that's rare. My dreams usually have an elaborate plot and often even a narrator. :)

[mlittrell]

I dream in colors - though occasionally in black and white, but that's rare. My dreams usually have an elaborate plot and often even a narrator. :)
is the narrator morgan freeman? if it is, im freaking jealous.

[StoryOfMyLife]

is the narrator morgan freeman? if it is, im freaking jealous.

:happy2: I'd be jealous, too. Morgan Freeman rocks my socks. James Earl Jones would be an equally welcome narrator...how come my dreams don't get narrations?

...what should one eat before bed in order to appropriate a dream-narrator, I wonder? :confused:

[evan]

My dreams are incredibly un-detailed visually...I don't even know if they're black and white or color -- there are basically only enough details for me to recognize people and objects.

Sounds, on the other hand, are quite detailed...

I experience dreams quite abstractly; they barely ever follow a cohesive timeline.

[mlittrell]

:happy2: I'd be jealous, too. Morgan Freeman rocks my socks. James Earl Jones would be an equally welcome narrator...how come my dreams don't get narrations?

...what should one eat before bed in order to appropriate a dream-narrator, I wonder? :confused:
eat whatever morgan freeman or james earl jones eat when they get up in the morning

[GinKuusouka]

Color, all the way. Not that I remember many of my dreams, but those that I do make absolutely no sense at all. :D

[StoryOfMyLife]

eat whatever morgan freeman or james earl jones eat when they get up in the morning

:nice: I'll...er...get right on finding out what that could possibly be... narrated dreams would be amazing... You know, I'd even settle for Liam Neeson -- he has an incredibly rich voice as well... :D

[mlittrell]

:nice: I'll...er...get right on finding out what that could possibly be... narrated dreams would be amazing... You know, I'd even settle for Liam Neeson -- he has an incredibly rich voice as well... :D
Liam is the freaking man... id totally dig that... that would be sweet if all three where having a conversation in my dreams... i would never wake up

[dyspraxion]

I dream in color and extreme weirdness. And that I get stabbed or sliced or set on fire or something similarly painful every couple of months (and it hurts, even after I wake up).

[cherchair]

Always in color, at least as far as I know. And lots of sensory stuff as well. Most nights I have hypnogogic hallucinations as well; it's how I go to sleep. I just let myself fall into them and enjoy.