# Dream in color or black and white **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 14, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857 "2001-06-14T23:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BlueSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@BlueSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueSky)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/1 "2001-06-14T23:53:49Z")
Out of curiosity, which one do you dream in color or black and white when you’re sleep? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/2 "2001-06-15T00:04:10Z")
Always colour. What do you take me for, a mime? ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/3 "2001-06-15T01:45:33Z")
Color. I once dreamed that my father was a gigantic fluorescent orange fish with bulging white eyeballs. Don’t ask. Make if what you will. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/4 "2001-06-15T02:43:25Z")
I noticed in a dream once that things were in colour, so I know that I dream in colour most of the time. What I find odd is that I can’t taste or smell in dreams, and I have a hard time reading - I can do it, but it is really difficult, and I am a very good reader IRL. Brains are funny, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/5 "2001-06-15T02:48:56Z")
I dream in color. I can also taste and smell in my dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Amedeus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Amedeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amedeus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/6 "2001-06-15T05:26:33Z")
Yeah? Well I dream in Technicolor®! And I wear my 3-D glasses so everything is wacky… (of course sometimes I roll over in my sleep and crush them, thankfully they don’t cost much) ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/7 "2001-06-15T07:32:48Z")
I dream in blue and white, not black. Guess I’m royalty 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/8 "2001-06-15T09:29:47Z")
I dream in color, and when I first heard about people dreaming in black and white (I think it was mentioned in L.A. Law) I thought it was a silly plot device or something. I too have trouble reading in dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/9 "2001-06-15T09:55:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by featherlou \* > \*\*I noticed in a dream once that things were in colour, so I know that I dream in colour most of the time. What I find odd is that I can’t taste or smell in dreams, and I have a hard time reading - I can do it, but it is really difficult, and I am a very good reader IRL. Brains are funny, eh? \*\* I’ve found this as well, I think it’s because your brain is actually trying to lift your eyelids and can’t, much like the scenario where you can’t run - it’s because your brain can tell that your body is immobile (my WAG anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/10 "2001-06-15T15:08:54Z")
I vaguely recollect hearing something about not reading in dreams because they come from one side of your brain, and reading resides in the other side, or something like that (gee, really nailed that theory down, didn’t I?). I wonder; is there anyone out there who simply _can’t_ read in dreams? Is the ability to read in dreams somewhat unique, or can everyone read in dreams? Can some people read as easily in dreams as when they’re awake? ( **Hastur** , I’m envious - not being able to smell and taste in dreams is a source of frustration for me. When smell and taste are called for in the dreams, and I can’t do it, I wake up feeling very disgruntled.) ---
**Author:** ![sulawesi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@sulawesi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sulawesi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/11 "2001-06-16T04:52:25Z")
I dream in color, and I can taste and smell, and read, and run, but the one thing I can’t do is talk. This is always in some way involved in my nightmares, too: usually I’ll try to scream and realize I can’t, and that scares me (in the dream) more than anything else. FWIW, I have lots of dreams involving reading. I’m much faster and more thorough about it than I am in real life, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/12 "2001-06-16T05:11:38Z")
I dream in color. But… Well, before I went to see _The Blair Witch Project_, I was thinking a lot about the clips I’d seen and such, and I had a black-and-white dream about it. Really odd. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/13 "2001-06-16T22:08:45Z")
Color. I’ve never met anyone who claimed to dream in b&w, so I’m inclined to think it’s an myth, like the idea that dogs literally see in black and white. For the Straight Dope on that, see [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_004.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_004.html) I once met someone who claimed we “really” dream in black in white, we just “think” we dream in color. At which point the conversation became mired in one of those hopeless epstemological debates on the nature of reality. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kevin\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevin_H)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/14 "2001-06-16T22:16:47Z")
I could never say either way if I dreamt in color or not, until I remember dealing with a red object --I forget what it is now-- and then I knew that I dream in color, it just usually doesn’t really matter. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/15 "2001-06-16T23:08:43Z")
I usually dream in color, too, but I know I had a dream in black and white once – it was sort of a horror-movie type thing, too, but I think it was before we’d ever heard of the Blair Witch. (In the dream, I was lost in an abandoned mansion, and being chased by Robert Duvall, who was dressed like a priest, brandishing a human skull, and shrieking in this nasal voice. Sure, it sounds funny, but it was really scary! :eek: :D) ---
**Author:** ![No\_Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba8739/32.png) [@No\_Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Bones)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/16 "2001-06-17T01:45:24Z")
Every dreamt in color before black and white photos were invented. They never thought to do otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![bafaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@bafaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bafaa)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/17 "2001-06-17T04:09:01Z")
I dream in color. Just this morning I had a dream about someone at work and she was definitely wearing a blue dress. The dream was getting kinda weird and thankfully the phone rang and woke me. I can also read in dreams but I find it difficult to read for too long. I assume it’s because what I’m reading is being generated by my brain and there’s only so much it will generate before it runs out of material. I have opened books in dreams and started reading and remember saying to myself “This isn’t a very good book.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/18 "2001-06-17T04:34:52Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Jadis_ > I once dreamed that my father was a gigantic fluorescent orange fish with bulging white eyeballs Hm. Reminds me of [this](http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Images/Skoglund/revenge.html). Color dreams here. On a tangent - I also dream in layers, and it’s great fun when I jump in and out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/19 "2001-06-17T20:30:27Z")
Jeeze, now that someone’s mentioned talking in dreams (thanks, **Vengeance and dust** ), I don’t know if I can do that either. I mean, it seems like I’m talking to people, but when I think about it, the conversations are happening in my head, and I hear what they say in my head, so I don’t know if I’m talking in my dreams or if I just think I am. Okay, that doesn’t make much sense. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857/20 "2001-06-17T21:00:34Z")
Reading definitely works differently in dreams than in real life. In practicing to become lucid in dreams, one of the “cues” used to tell if you’re dreaming or not is reading; you read something short, like a road sign, and look away. If, when you look back, it’s changed, then you know you’re dreaming. Of course, this doesn’t work if you’re dreaming that you’re in Vegas. As to color/black and white, I dreamed just the other night of a beautiful tiny blue tropical fish, swimming about in midair. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-in-color-or-black-and-white/68857.md?page=2)