Do you dream in color or black-and-white? It depends on TV!

William Atkins
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 06:43

Science - Biology

A British researcher wondered if dreaming in color or black-and-white was affected by age; specifically, if older people who grew up with black-and-white television and movies dreamed in gray-scale more than younger people who grew up with color TV and films.


British psychologist Eva Murzyn, who is associated with the Department of Psychology at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, led the study of sixty participants.

She had each participant use a day-to-day dairy to record the content of their dreams, and whether they were in color or not.

Dr. Murzyn concluded that people who watched only black-and-white TV as children, those older than 55 years of age, reported dreaming in gray-scale more often than children raised with color television.

She stated in the New Scientist article “TV turns dreams from grey to colour” (October 25-31, 2008, page 15), “There could be a critical period In our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed.”

Murzyn contends that TV shows and films strongly influence children because they are often very emotional in their content and, thus, are very influential on children even into adulthood.

Dr. Murzyn’s article in currently in press (as of November 4, 2008) within the journal Consciousness and Cognition.

It is entitled “Do we only dream in colour? A comparison of reported dream colour in younger and older adults with different experiences of black and white media.”