For many years, a common belief was that people dreamt in black and white rather than color. This idea seemed to make intuitive sense – early films and TV shows were in black and white, so our dreaming brains may have followed suit. However, modern research has shown that this is not the case – dreams are experienced in color most of the time. So why did we ever think that dreams were devoid of color? The reasons behind this myth are illuminating about both the nature of dreams and how myths can arise and persist even without strong evidence behind them.
Early black and white media
One major reason is that early mass media like films, TV, newspapers and magazines were in black and white. For example, the first partially color film wasn’t released until 1935 and color TVs only started becoming widespread in the 1960s. So for the first half of the 20th century, most of what people saw in media was in black and white.
This led to an association between black and white and the imaginary worlds shown on screen and in print. In the absence of concrete evidence about the nature of dreams, it was an easy assumption that dreams might follow the same rules. The lack of color in people’s media consumption seemed to connect straightforwardly to the idea that dreams would also lack color.
Memory and dreams
Another factor is the unreliable nature of memory, particularly where dreams are concerned. Most dreams are quickly forgotten upon waking up. The longest dreams may last up to 30 minutes, but most are only several minutes long. Dream details tend to fade within 10 minutes of waking, and longer dreams are broken up into vignettes upon waking.
This fragmented recall makes it extremely difficult for us to remember complete dreams with accuracy. In black and white media dreams were already expected, so remembering dreams as black and white likely fitted with people’s presumptions. The lack of vivid sensory detail in dream memories made the black and white perception stronger.
Gradual change in research
For a long time, there wasn’t much scientific research into the content of dreams. When research did begin in the 20th century, the perception that dreams were black and white affected how questions were framed and results interpreted. For example, a 1916 study by Hanns Sachs took the black and white perception as a given and tried to explain why it might be true.
So early research was somewhat biased by the prevailing assumption that dreams were in black and white. It took time for enough research to accumulate showing evidence that dreams did contain color imagery. This gradually led to a shift in the consensus as more rigorously designed studies challenged the black and white orthodoxy. But it took decades for this view to reverse completely.
| Decade | % of dreams reported in color |
|---|---|
| 1960s | 15% |
| 1970s | 30% |
| 1980s | 75% |
Patterns and symbols
Some dream researchers thought dreams were in black and white because they believed dreams did not contain imagery at all. Instead, they argued dreams were composed of more abstract symbols, patterns and shapes. These shapes took the form of black lines against a white background.
So in this view, dreams were black and white but not in the same way as media or photos. However, the evidence does not support this view – while some symbolic content can appear, most dream content is made up of sensory images including color. But it shows that the black and white perception arose partly from theories about symbolism rather than the true experience of dreams.
Black and white memories
One other factor is that some genuinely memorable dreams happen to be in black and white. This includes dreams that are repeatedly experienced over time. A small number of people do report dreaming almost entirely in black and white.
So in some cases there was a truthful basis to the black and white belief – some individuals did have monochrome dreams and formed more memories around them. However, science has since established that this is not the norm. But these memorable black and white dreams helped form the early conventional wisdom by being more widely recalled and told.
Lucid dreaming
Modern research into lucid dreaming provided more concrete evidence against the idea that dreams are black and white. Lucid dreaming occurs when dreamers become aware they are dreaming and can consciously influence the dream.
Studies of lucid dreamers found that colors are vivid and bright in this state for almost everyone. This provided clear evidence that the dreaming brain is perfectly capable of processing color information. Lucid dream findings firmly overturned the black and white theory.
Color deficient dreamers
There is one group for whom dreams genuinely are black and white – those with various visual deficiencies like color blindness or achromatopsia. For those lacking color vision, dreams naturally follow this and are devoid of color.
So ironically, for the small minority of people who are color deficient, the myth was true. However, their dreams are black and white simply because they do not experience the world in color when awake either. For anyone with normal color vision, dreams match real life and contain color. But these exceptional cases provided circumstantial support to the myth.
Gradual increase in color
A typical pattern reported by many dreamers is a gradual increase in color during a single dream. Early or transitional portions of the dream are more likely to be black and white or muted in color. But the color becomes more vivid and varied later in the dream.
This suggests that the brain takes time to generate rich color information within each dream. The common experience of weak color early in a dream may have contributed to the myth by making black and white dreams seem plausible based on this frequent pattern.
Conclusion
In summary, the myth arose and persisted mainly due to privileged media assumptions, unreliable dream memories, lack of research and misinterpretations of unusual black and white dreams. The delayed advent of color media and gradual nature of dream color research meant the myth went largely unchallenged until recent decades. But we now understand that dreams are naturally experienced in color for the vast majority of people, matching their perception during waking life. What seemed intuitive turned out to be false.
