# Do you dream in color? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804 "2002-12-19T14:42:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/21 "2002-12-19T22:53:07Z")
I do dream in color. Sometimes I dream in rgb, sometimes cmyk, but always in color. (seriously though, i do.) ---
**Author:** ![MadScientistMatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@MadScientistMatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadScientistMatt)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/22 "2002-12-20T00:14:24Z")
**Malice** , I’ve also had a black and white TV show dream. I dreamed I was on a black and white episod of a Lassie rerun. Except color sometimes started appearing in it, but not always in ways that would make sense - for example, at one point, a few _green_ spots appeared on Lassie. Colors like that make me doubt that I think the color is there simply because all objects of that nature have that color; sometimes in dreams the colors don’t match what the object should have. Other times, objects in my dreams appear to be things that don’t exist in the real world, so there’s no preexisting idea I could have had as to what color they were. Another note is that sometimes in my dreams I have a way of knowing things about in the objects in the dreams even when there is no way any of my five senses could have told me them. I can’t remember any specific examples, just that this seems to be relatively common in dreams. Sometimes it feels that I know about the odd things that turn up in dreams from some sort of previous experience that I don’t remember; maybe it was in another dream that I’ve forgotten? 🙂 Other times I have to wonder if I have six senses in some of my dreams. ---
**Author:** ![PolskiKing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@PolskiKing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PolskiKing)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/23 "2002-12-20T00:48:10Z")
one time i dreamed i was eating a giant marshmellow. When i woke up i found my pillow gone \ -pk ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/24 "2002-12-20T22:08:10Z")
I dream in color. There may be exceptions where I’m dreaming about something coming from a B&W film. I have a related question that doesn’t seem like too much of a hijack. What resolution do you dream in? I seem to have a “normal” resolution that corresponds to, strangely enough, computer monitor/TV/normal vision with glasses. I.e., it covers about 90 degrees side-to-side, and maybe 45 up-and-down. When I’m under the weather, I’ve noticed the “dots per inch” drop, and I don’t see things in the “normal” detail. At other times, which I haven’t quite identified, I see in “super resolution”, where I can make out almost any level of detail I choose. Other experiences? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/25 "2002-12-20T22:20:35Z")
I dream in color. And I can “taste” in my dreams. Things almost always taste bad. […shrug…] ---
**Author:** ![BZ00000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/47e85d/32.png) [@BZ00000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BZ00000)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/26 "2002-12-20T22:24:51Z")
I recall reading an article that said there was no debate on whether people dreamed in black and white, before black and white movies. The author(s) made the argument that a person who had never seen a black and white environment would not create one for dreams. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/27 "2002-12-20T22:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BZ00000 \* > \*\*I recall reading an article that said there was no debate on whether people dreamed in black and white, before black and white movies. The author(s) made the argument that a person who had never seen a black and white environment would not create one for dreams. \*\* Grrr. As a B&W fan, such belittling as the article you quoted always gets me. Black and white vision _IS_ normal, you cone-obsessed nerks! Night vision, controlled by the eye’s rods, only sees black and white. So every human being is completely familiar with the black and white world. Even color blind people, one presumes. (Which brings up the hijack . . . I can’t help it . . . I just think this way . . . is there a “color blind” equivalent for black and white vision? I.e., an unnatural spectral deficiency? Ok, ok. I _must_ go Christmas shopping now. Now!) ---
**Author:** ![BlueMit11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@BlueMit11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMit11)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/28 "2002-12-20T23:23:15Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Engywook \* > \*\* Dreams have a certain suspension of disbelief, where you’re not making comparisons to reality_\* Try telling that to us lucid dreamers, **engy**. Part of [lucid dreaming](http://www.dreamviews.com) is comparing it to reality. The only senses I remember in my dreams are sight, sound (of course) and touch. Interestingly enough I tend to experience physical pain in my dreams, or at least I used to when I was younger. It didn’t happen a lot, but I can remember a few times. One of my favorite dreams was the one about the Walrus Joke. I was coming home from school with my brother and he said, “Hey, I heard about that joke you told about the Walrus. That’s pretty funny!” and I had no idea what he was talking about. The next day at school everyone was commending me on an absolutely hilarious Walrus Joke, but I had no idea what the joke was myself, nor any recollection of telling it. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/29 "2002-12-21T00:13:06Z")
While it’s one of those “facts” that is to be taken with a grain of salt, some of my dream books claim that more men than women report that they dream in black and white. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/30 "2002-12-21T00:21:06Z")
[short hijack by a colour blind person] Show a yellow card and a green card to a colour blind person - he/she might see two green cards or two yellow cards (assuming they have a yellow/green type colour blindness). But they (we) see the world virtually the same as a non-colour blind person most of the time. [/short hijack by a colour blind person] ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/31 "2002-12-21T00:46:44Z")
When I was a kid lots of people asserted that women deamt in color and men in b&w. This was soundly refuted when a man in a sleep lab reprted dreaming about orange tickertape. Men don’t report remembering color from dreams very much, but then ask most men what colors they saw in the last hour and many won’t report accurately. As my co-worker said, “I’m a guy, I don’t need to know what color anything is, I have a girlfriend for that.” People may well dream in b&w, but there is no evidence that anyone that can see color would do so routinely. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/32 "2002-12-21T01:12:11Z")
> [@](#): > > “I’m a guy, I don’t need to know what color anything is, I have a girlfriend for that.” I like that quote. ---
**Author:** ![Ben\_Hicks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@Ben\_Hicks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben_Hicks)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/33 "2002-12-21T01:53:35Z")
FWIW I always dream in colour. However, I hardly ever hear anything in my dreams. If I’m talking to someone in a dream I know what they’re saying but I can never hear their voices. Bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/34 "2002-12-21T02:15:47Z")
> [@](#): > > If I’m talking to someone in a dream I know what they’re saying but I can never hear their voices. Bizarre. What is more bizare than that is knowing who someone is when they look like someone else or when their face is completely covered, or you can’t see them at all. Anyone know what I am talking about? ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/35 "2002-12-21T07:22:21Z")
I dream in color…usually the colors are apropriate for the object in the dream, but rarely the colors will be bizarre. But hey, they are dreams, so anything is up for grabs. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804/36 "2002-12-21T09:06:48Z")
What I like about dreams, apart from the strangely complete storytelling that so often happens, is that you can sometimes see what is going on behind closed doors or around the corner before actually arriving there. Or sometimes you’re in it, sometimes you’re observing but not in it, or sometimes you’re observing yourself in it but are still yourself at the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-dream-in-color/143804.md?page=1)