People’s age and the era in which they lived influence the color of their dreams, scientists show. Some studies reveal the things that have influenced people’s perception of their dreams over time.
Numerous studies have been carried out on the subject of dreams. Photo: Daniel Guță THE TRUTH
Since ancient times, people have described the presence of colors in their dreams. Ancient phliosophists such as Aristotle described the perception of colors during dreams as far back as almost two and a half millennia ago.
How colors evolved in dreams
At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists noticed that dreams are increasingly remembered in black and white and shades of gray. Some have argued that this has to do with the growing popularity of television, newspapers and photography.
In 1942, the scientist Warren C. Middleton published a large study in which more than 270 students were tested, and almost all of them answered that they were dreaming. But less than a third of them could see color in their dreams – some recalling the color of green fields and forests or blue water and sky. Other studies from the middle of the last century also showed that respondents very rarely noticed the presence of colors in their dreams.
With the increasing spread of color television and photography, starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the appearance of colors in dreams was increasingly reported in studies devoted to the phenomenon.
“Some question the ‘media hypothesis’ above, pointing out that methodologies for obtaining dream data have changed since the 1960s and that this most likely explains the higher incidence of color. Most of the early studies of color in dreams were based on questionnaires and the respondent’s ability to recall their dreams, often long after the actual dream. Since the 1960s, researchers have tended to collect dream reports immediately upon awakening or after intentionally waking subjects during REM sleep. The findings suggest that reports taken immediately after waking have a significantly higher incidence of color reported in dreams, indicating that the key factor is our ability to remember dreams accurately.” said Medium, in an article by Carl Jennings.
However, most people do not attach much importance to the colors in their dreams, the author points out.
More and more people dream in color
Although dreaming in black and white is not uncommon, many people dream in color most of the time, according to research recently cited by the Washington Post.
“A 2017 study showed that participants reported color in nearly 50 percent of their dreams, black-and-white dreams reported in only 10 percent, and for 40 percent of dreams, people couldn’t remember if there were any colors. The tendency to dream in shades of gray or in color can be partly influenced by age and when people grew up. By the 1950s, research suggests, the vast majority of people surveyed said they only occasionally, rarely, or never dreamed in color, and those dreams also had a name, “technicolor,” in the scientific community. This seemed to change with the advent of color television“, says an article published by the US daily.
A 2008 study found that people older than 55 — who may have grown up without a color TV — reported dreaming in color only about 34 percent of the time, while those younger than 25 had said they did so about 68 percent of the time.
Both the older and younger age groups reported similar results when it came to not remembering the colors of their dreams, nearly 18 percent and 15 percent, respectively, the publication notes.
“The inability to remember whether dreams are colorful may indicate that our mind is prioritizing other aspects of 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,” according to the Washington Post.
The colors of dreams
In 2011, researchers published the findings of surveys, conducted 16 years apart, showing that about 80 percent of participants under the age of 30 reported color in their dreams, but this dropped to about 20 percent by age for 60 years.
“In general, dream recall, including the level of detail, declines with age”says Deirdre Barrett.
The colors most commonly seen in dreams are black, white and red, which have been associated with love, blood, flesh and fire, says dream researcher Kelly Bulkeley, quoted by the American publication
Colors often have meaning to the dreamer, signaling that an object of a certain color is important. They may be more meaningful to some people than to others.
“Dreams are highly subjective and often reflect the dreamer’s life and their daily interactions. For example, if someone works as a painter, the colors in their dreams might have more meaning compared to someone who is somewhat indifferent to colors in general.”says Eti Ben Simon, researcher at a University of California.
