In the past, it was believed that most people dream mainly in black and white, while colored dreams were thought to be related to psychological issues.
Science has since dispelled these myths.
Although black and white dreams are not uncommon, many people dream in color. A 2017 study found that participants dream about colors very often.
According to a 2017 study, participants reported that nearly 50% of their dreams were in color. For 40% of the dreams they reported not being able to remember if there was any color.
Depending on the generation and… television
The tendency to dream in shades of gray or in color may be influenced in part by the age and era in which people grew up.
In the 1950s, according to research, the vast majority of people interviewed said they only occasionally, rarely, or never dreamed about colors, then called “technicolor” dreams in the scientific community. This seemed to change with the advent of color television.
The inability to remember whether dreams are colorful may indicate that our mind is prioritizing other aspects of our dreams. “It could be a question of attention and memory,” said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist who studies dreams at Harvard Medical School and an author. from the book “The function of sleep”.
“For example, he noted, after eating at a restaurant, the customer is likely to not remember the color of the waiter’s shirt. This does not mean that the shirt had no color, but the color was not imprinted in memory.”
And this can become more noticeable as we age.
In 2011, two surveys conducted 16 years apart showed that about 80% of participants under age 30 reported colors in their dreams, but that rate dropped to about 20% by age 60.
΄“In general, dream recall decreases with age”Barrett pointed out.
The most common colors and the… non-existent ones
The most commonly reported colors in dreams are black, white and red, which have been associated with love, blood, flesh and fire, said Kelly Bulkeley, dream researcher, author and founder of the Sleep and Dream Database, which includes more than 40,000 dream entries.
But, according to Barrett, some people have reported seeing unrealistic colors – like people with blue hands – or colors that don’t exist.
Colors often signal that a colored object is important, and colors may be more important to some people than others.
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