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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Dreaming - black and white or colour?

52 replies

IncompleteSenten · 03/12/2021 20:41

I've just been reading that a small percentage of people dream in black and white. I'm just interested so because there's no other poll option apart from yabu/yanbu

YABU - I dream in black and white

YANBU - I dream in colour.

OP posts:
nellyburt · 03/12/2021 20:42

I dream in colour but my dh and dd don’t see anything when they dream.

MoiraNotRuby · 03/12/2021 20:43

Ooh I'd love to have a black and white dream!

Mum2jenny · 03/12/2021 20:44

Dreams are always in colour for me.

shouldistop · 03/12/2021 20:44

I don't think I see anything when I dream.

MrsSkylerWhite · 03/12/2021 20:46

Technicolor (spelling intentional) and intense since first lockdown.
My husband thinks I ought to submit them as scripts. They’re beyond hallucinatory.

I would love a plain and simple black and white dream - please.

Tomatalillo · 03/12/2021 20:46

I thought it was more unusual to dream in colour!

Dreams are in colour for me

Original poster
IncompleteSenten · 03/12/2021 20:47

Nothing at all? That's really interesting.
What are dreams like for you guys? Sounds or just the feeling of having had a dream?

OP posts:
Original poster
IncompleteSenten · 03/12/2021 20:49

Apparently it used to be more common many years ago when TVs were black and white but switched after TVs became colour and now more people dream in colour

I don't know how true that is mind, there's a lot of bollocks on the internet 😂

OP posts:
shouldistop · 03/12/2021 20:51

@IncompleteSenten

Nothing at all? That's really interesting. What are dreams like for you guys? Sounds or just the feeling of having had a dream?
I don't remember much. What I do are more feelings or 'knowing' something without having seen it. Maybe flashes of visuals but that's it. I don't have a good minds eye though. I struggle to recognise faces unless I know someone pretty well. I have a terrible sense of direction as I can't visualise where i am even if I've been before quite a few times.
HoseMeDownWithHolyWater · 03/12/2021 20:51

I need to know more about the no picture dreams.

Mine are always in colour.

UnaOfStormhold · 03/12/2021 20:53

I don't see things when I dream, I just seem to be having a particular experience. I'm aphantasic which seems likely to be linked.

Dimsummummy · 03/12/2021 20:54

Mine are like real life! I sometimes confuse the two. Colour, plot lines, characters and sensations..

BusySittingDown · 03/12/2021 20:54

Always in colour but a bit fuzzy, like I'm watching an old video. They're like epic films sometimes.

Dimsummummy · 03/12/2021 20:55

Also have a Fitbit and it shows I spend between 25:30% of each night dreaming.

underneaththeash · 03/12/2021 20:56

@UnaOfStormhold

I don't see things when I dream, I just seem to be having a particular experience. I'm aphantasic which seems likely to be linked.
I’m similar. But I do recognise things as the parts of the brain which control visual memory and recognition are different.
ArblemarchTFruitbat · 03/12/2021 20:57

In colour, and usually very realistic.

I can lucid-dream to an extent in that I realise I'm dreaming and I try to conjure up pleasant things, but my brain won't play ball to the extent of actually bringing them along. I sit there waiting in vain for my crush-of-the-moment to come along and snog me Grin.

ShinyMe · 03/12/2021 20:58

I can't think now what mine are like.

And now I think about it... I can't remember the last time I had a dream I remember. It's odd, as usually I dream very vividly and am quite good at remembering them - from what I can tell from talking to friends, I dream and remember them more often than many people and have very vivid and odd dreams. At one point I had trained myself to have lucid dreams and was getting quite good at recognising and interacting with dreams. But now that I think, I can't remember any dreams in ages and ages, maybe months. I have had very poor sleep for a long time, I wonder if that's why.

Giggorata · 03/12/2021 21:02

I think it is true. I remember when the majority of people, classmates, etc, said they dreamt in black and white.
This was in the 60s, when colour TV was unobtainable/really rare.

I don't remember any dreams of mine in black and white, quite the reverse, in almost delirious colour.

DahliaMacNamara · 03/12/2021 21:03

Definitely in colour. And though I don't have lucid dreams where I can influence the outcome, I have recurrent ones where I think or tell someone 'this is just like that dream I keep having', as if I'm aware of previous dreams but think this time it's reality.

shouldistop · 03/12/2021 21:08

@IncompleteSenten

Apparently it used to be more common many years ago when TVs were black and white but switched after TVs became colour and now more people dream in colour

I don't know how true that is mind, there's a lot of bollocks on the internet 😂

I don't think that's true, after all we see in colour.
GetEmOutByFriday · 03/12/2021 21:14

It was a given fact in psychology textbooks that we dream in black and white. That's from the 70's and earlier. I always had dreamed in colour from my earliest toddler memory and thought it odd to only see B/W and have always been interested in people's dreams. I was born in 1957.

Interesting you mention colour television OP as I had guessed there was a connection between that and the increase in people dreaming in full colour.

I do get the 'just having an experience dreams' but also full colour dreams. I've also had lucid dreams twice. Also have the ones like a series, going back to the same place. A dream place, not a real life place.

Meruem · 03/12/2021 21:15

I dream in colour. I also have lucid dreams on occasion. I had a great one once where I was singing a song and as I flung my arms around, fireworks went off and colourful characters appeared and joined in the singing! It was so much fun. On the flip side though I have horrendous nightmares. Demons who fling me around the room or squeeze me until I feel like I’m dying! It starts as a gentle hug which seems nice, but gets tighter and tighter until I’m terrified.

The thing I found most strange is once I spent a few months in Japan, learning Japanese. And I found that I started dreaming in Japanese (the small amount I knew at that point). That was quite strange, but I suppose understandable. I do still now have the occasional Japanese dream.

Buttercup72 · 03/12/2021 21:15

I dream in colour but once had a dream in black and white. I was watching a lot of black and white films at the time so maybe that’s what influenced it? I still remember that dream vividly because it was so different from my usual dreams - not just the colour but I was also a man about to go off to war. Probably linked to the films i was watching I think. It’s never happened since although I still love a b&w film.

MrsPleasant · 03/12/2021 21:16

I have no idea, I just dream. I used to have a recurring dream as a child and when describing it I knew the colours involved, but I'm not aware what colours they are unless asked.

SilverGlassHare · 03/12/2021 21:18

I dream in colour BUT it’s nearly always night in my dreams. If I’m outside, the sky is dark but lit with an orange glow, like street lamps.