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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
4intheCorner · 03/12/2021 21:23

I dream in colour, very vivid and realistic. Sometimes I can't distinguish between a dream and reality. Everything is realistic, yet different. Like a room from my current house, but in a house I used to live in.

StormyCornishSeas · 03/12/2021 21:29

My dreams are in colour but muted dark colours.

InTheLabyrinth · 03/12/2021 21:30

I don't dream in pictures.

Chocolatewheatos · 03/12/2021 21:43

It's fascinating how different people's brains work. The idea of not seeing in dreams is so alien to me.
I have a lot of control in most dreams but sometimes I have dreams where I keep waking up. I had one this morning and kept waking up, not being able to speak, then waking up into a new dream. I also conjur up railings in dreams where I'm running so I csn pull myself along because I can't run in dreams.
I do have a good minds eye though, I use visualisations a lot.

Chocolatewheatos · 03/12/2021 21:45

But visually my dreams are no different to real life.

BookFiend4Life · 03/12/2021 21:46

Gosh I don't know! I have really vivid dreams (the other night I dreamed a complete episode of snl with 6 or 7 sketches that I then recited to my husband) but I've never noticed if they're in color or not... maybe I would notice if they were black and white??? Interesting question!

FrostyFruit · 03/12/2021 21:48

My nightmares are always in colour and very vivid. I have never had a good dream in my entire life. Would love to know what it's like to have a beautiful, colourful, happy dream.

Youngatheart00 · 03/12/2021 21:48

Always in colour and totally like real life

Ostryga · 03/12/2021 21:52

I have epic, detailed dreams I can remember for months afterwards.

Although the downside to this is I also have epic, detailed nightmares that wake me up sweating and hyperventilating and take me hours to calm down from.

Ostryga · 03/12/2021 21:53

And they’re all in colour (to actually answer the op Blush )

Monr0e · 03/12/2021 21:55

My dreams have always been in colour except for one. It wasn't black and white but that sort of sepia brown and cream. I was drowning in shallow water surrounded by reeds. I remember it vividly even though it must have been around 20 years ago.

I've only ever had one lucid dream, and o e where I could fly, but I was really bad at it and kept having to run along roof tops and jump off them before quickly landing again on the next roof Smile

I also get sleep paralysis.

I find dreams and the workings if the brain fascinating.

Bluntness100 · 03/12/2021 22:06

I don’t know, my dreams seem like thoughts to me, weird thoughts but thoughts all the same, there are no images I can recall.

ScrambledSmegs · 03/12/2021 22:18

Always in colour.

I used to frequently have dreams that didn't stop when I woke up. They'd be overlaid on reality for a short while - at most about 30 seconds. There was a woman standing in the middle of my bed once, staring down at me. Bit of a shock Grin.

I think they'd have been less terrifying experiences in black and white.

pigsDOfly · 03/12/2021 22:30

Always in colour and I'm always much younger in my dreams, I've just turned 73, so I'm assuming that's a bit of wish fulfilment.

I find it hard to believe that television is such an influence on whether we dream in b/w or colour. What did people dream in before tv was common.

We see the world in colour so surely it makes more sense that we would dream in colour; colour didn't suddenly appear because we have coloured films and tv

MsAgnesDiPesto · 03/12/2021 22:57

@Dimsummummy

Mine are like real life! I sometimes confuse the two. Colour, plot lines, characters and sensations..
Yes, this is me too! When I was at school I’d dream whole days, my full school day of lessons, and wake up not sure if I’d lived it or dreamt it.

Mine now are completely vivid, all senses involved, and often complex. I can also sometimes get back into a dream if I wake during it!

Bluntness100 · 04/12/2021 08:33

Well I can confirm I was wrong, I defintely dream in colour 😂

IncompleteSenten · 04/12/2021 09:39

😁 I assume you had a colourful dream last night then.What did you dream?

OP posts:
WithASpider · 04/12/2021 10:46

I dream in colour, very lucid dreams too. I also dream in different languages and talk in my sleep. DC talk too, DS once sang Christmas songs in his sleep while he was learning them for his reception nativity!

chiefcha · 04/12/2021 10:53

Colour. I was never sure until I taught myself how to lucid dream a few years ago. Once I'd had a lucid dream I realised how much detail dreams actually contain - they're just like reality, all your senses are fully functioning.

TeaAndStrumpets · 04/12/2021 11:07

@pigsDOfly

Always in colour and I'm always much younger in my dreams, I've just turned 73, so I'm assuming that's a bit of wish fulfilment.

I find it hard to believe that television is such an influence on whether we dream in b/w or colour. What did people dream in before tv was common.

We see the world in colour so surely it makes more sense that we would dream in colour; colour didn't suddenly appear because we have coloured films and tv

pigsDofly I am a couple of years younger than you and agree people without tv managed perfectly well! I dream in full colour but also I talk incessantly in my dreams, maybe too much exposure to The Home Service at an early age Grin
TeaAndStrumpets · 04/12/2021 11:08

Sorry pigsDOfly

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 04/12/2021 11:10

*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 think there’s some truth in this. I used to teach art and Dt. Lots of it involved researching images from the past, some of which were in black and white:

I taught more than one kid who thought the part was all in black and white.

DublinDoris2000 · 04/12/2021 12:07

I think I dream in black and white, or at least the colours are very muted. Often my vision is a bit off in dreams, and I know people are certain people more by feeling than sight. Which is wierd, as I'm very visual when awake

pigsDOfly · 04/12/2021 12:17

Just re the influence of tv. Many years ago I read that artists (painters) tend to dream in colour whereas non artistic people dream in black and white.

Again, like the tv thing that doesn't stack up for me, I can barely draw a straight line yet and art and colour, apart from the fact that I'm surrounded by it, has never played any part in my life yet, as I said in my pp, I've always dreamed in colour.

I think often it's the case that someone comes up with a theory and suddenly it's accepted as truth.

SittingontheSidelines · 04/12/2021 12:20

Colour, very vivid and I lucid dream. Not to the extent where I can change the dream but I can, with a lot of effort, wake myself up. Interestingly though I do have a couple of recurring dreams from very early childhood which are black and white.

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