Dreaming in Color &/Or Black-&-White~

[Nanny]

I want to ask anyone & everyone that will reply, do you dream in both? or just color? If you do or remember that you ever have dreamed in black/white, was it literally like watching a black and white TV, if you're old enough to ever have? Do you wake up and think something like, "wow, that was in black and white?" Or just remember the events and it's no big deal?

Maybe I did dream in black and white once or more, but that those are the dreams I don't remember. I have zero awareness or knowledge that I have ever dreamed in black and white. I don't hear it discussed very often, but when I do, every time I feel very foreign to the idea because it's feels so unreal to me. Life is so colorful, I'm not an optimist or pessimist but a "realist" and sorry for redundancy but I cannot one iota identify with dreaming in black and white.

If you ever did and remember it, and if you are too young too have watched a B&W TV, now you know what our old TV viewing was like. Really very bland. Oh, maybe you've seen it in really old reruns. Duh at myself, .

I just read a reference to B&W dreaming and this is why it's on my mind right now. Idea fascinates me and I've never asked a dreamer about it before.
Now, I shall end this post. I must really enjoy typing to be so wordy at times. heh~

[Trapper]

Nanny, I remember black and white very well (then again, I remember our local TV repair man coming out to our house to replace tubes in the old cabinet TV with the 'hard click knobs'...no remote except for the rowdy 8-year old, and 3-channels plus PBS to boot!). Then again, I remember sitting with my grandfather watching Armstrong pop out of Apollo 11 and walk on the moon, too - and him telling me "watch this, it will be important one day that you saw this"...an hour later, we were watching Cronkite and Mudd give body counts. If you know what I mean, you were there at that time, too).

Anyhow, yes, I dream in both (very rare for a man, by the way - did you know women dream in color FAR MORE than men do? About 10-to-1).

Most of my dreams are in color, or a subdued color (keep in mind, unfortunately I have a lot of 'dark' dreams, so it's like having brightness turned down on your TV anyhow). I seem to have B&W dreams when it is either 'past event' (which happens when someone is trying to 'link' something for me), or when it is a 'low key personal' event (cat took the car keys and hid them, did he? Troublesome feline, but he does love hunting and killing spiders, so we tolerate him).

If you are interested in this concept further, you might want to start a poll based on gender and dream hues, last study I saw on dreams and colors was done by one of the ivy league schools back in the 70's. If I remember correctly, men are like 8-percent in color, women like 84-percent. Tremendous disparity for 'color dreaming in the male gender'.

- Trapper -

[esholars]

I dream in black and white when I am dreaming a real event from the past. I dream in color other times. The color is very intense when it has blood in it and I hate that!

[Nanny]

Trapper, oh the memories! Yep, I'm not far from 60 so I do recall those things. Wow, I had no idea that some folks dreamed in B&W a lot, and that men were much more likely to do so.

Ah, dreaming of nightime, so the color is muted, I think is what you said. Like having visions when we're awake but eyes closed at night, before sleep. Also, I see two colors a lot, with eyes closed. They are purple and green, and they pulsate and move like blobs in a lava lamp.

I used to see pictures even moving pictures as I would be meditating as I was hoping to get to sleep, in dark bedroom, in bed. It was like....with our eyes closed, the background is like an etch-a-sketch background, except it's black. There's be goofy stuff, like why I may never know, but I'd see like cartoons, not colored in but sketched, little cars with a cop light on top driving up and down on winding roads, and other things, LOL.

Anyway, as for color and my dreams, they are literally always colored, that i Know of or can recall and are the same type of totally realistic colors that I see when awake and eyes open.

Escholars, very cool! Do you awaken and think about how you dreamed in B&W again? or are used to ita nd it's no big deal?
Ooh, I don't remember ever dreaming of blood. Then again, I do wonder what my dreams are that I don't remember even upon just having awakened.

[esholars]

I used to suffer such terrible dreams that I would wake up in terror. I would hit my hubby sometimes while I was fighting or running in my dreams. I have had these type of dreams forever and they used to make me think I was crazy.
I used to pick up dreams from other people around me (try telling someone their dream before they tell you) and I lived on a military post, in a country under a dictator and in apartments. I had empathic dreams! I had war dreams, torture dreams, murder dreams and I heard from neighbors that they had had similar dreams. I also had new baby dreams and new house dreams so I finally figured out the empath problem. They would all be in color, but my old memory dreams of my childhood were and are always in black and white. The dreams got really bloody when my Dad got back from Nam.
When I live in the house with him I would dream that I was walking through blood knee deep.
I have finally learned how to sort of control them, I avoid people!

[Nanny]

What a trip! to even learn it's possible, but I guess I should've known...that a type of psychic is the empathic ability. But...I'm amazed, gal. To be around others and instead of knowing their thoughts, which no way do I have, of course. To know their dreams!?

You sure have had to deal with a lot, in the early days. To actually think there could be something wrong with yourself! I'm glad you made it through all of that.

Very cool that all of your dreams of your past are in B&W! sounds like how a show or movie would make it be, but you're living it! Your dreams do this. I'm diggin it, in amazement, seriously.

Thank you for sharing this.

I used to suffer such terrible dreams that I would wake up in terror. I would hit my hubby sometimes while I was fighting or running in my dreams. I have had these type of dreams forever and they used to make me think I was crazy.
I used to pick up dreams from other people around me (try telling someone their dream before they tell you) and I lived on a military post, in a country under a dictator and in apartments. I had empathic dreams! I had war dreams, torture dreams, murder dreams and I heard from neighbors that they had had similar dreams. I also had new baby dreams and new house dreams so I finally figured out the empath problem. They would all be in color, but my old memory dreams of my childhood were and are always in black and white. The dreams got really bloody when my Dad got back from Nam.
When I live in the house with him I would dream that I was walking through blood knee deep.
I have finally learned how to sort of control them, I avoid people!

[Trapper Keeper]

Nanny, I dream in both... B&W and Color... but i often have dreams that I can feel texture, smell and even taste items! These are the ones most disturbing to me as they seem so real I have woke myself by crying screaming and yes on the rare occasion laughing uncontrollably.  

My only regret is that more often than not, I wake and can remember I was dreaming but not the details... This saddens me because I believe our dreams a messages to us, though not always clear in definition but still messages all the same. My husband and I often discuss our dreams and try to decipher them between each other... Often we find similarities in our dreams.

[esholars]

Trapper Keeper, long time married people often share thoughts and finish each others sentences . I don't see why it would be strange to dream shared ideas or to receive similar messages.
On not remembering details; sometimes you just need to get an overall message to understand what you are being told and sometimes you need details to understand the message. I think it has to do with the way your mind works. Trapper as an engineer needs details to do his work in his chosen field and he has an eidetic memory. I have an analytic mind and can get lost or caught up in studying details so I have learned to just dream short quick messages. My granddaughter that has what they call ADD has rambling and jump around non-coherent dreams. My logical child has very straight forward understandable and problem solving dreams. My problem child has very Biblical drama dreams. Each has very different learning styles and each has very different problem solving methods, that is why I think the way I do about dreaming.
p.s. Welcome to our world of dream study.

[Trapper]

Trapper Keeper, long time married people often share thoughts and finish each others sentences . I don't see why it would be strange to dream shared ideas or to receive similar messages.

We've 'finished the other's sentences' for a long time - rather annoying at this point (lol). Nothing like that frustrating point of trying to explain what you mean, and the other stop you and finish the thought for you! Then there's what I call 'a partial finish', to where she gets to a certain point and says, 'and then...?' I'll reply, 'well, you were in the attic so much, you tell me - I hadn't got that far personally!' Blatant mind invasion, that's what it is!

Actually, at a point, it's more like 'twin talk'. That has its benefits and down-sides. I have a best friend that's like a clone of yourself in many ways (which can also be annoying, just ask her!), but the downside is - you don't necessarily get a 2nd opinion on much, because it is more akin to yourself offering a 2nd opinion (which is, in fact, NOT a 2nd opinion).

The weirdest thing about dreaming in this condition, though, is that in many instances, we have components of the answer for each other's dreams. Much like the 'military man' who resided above her moving out and changing the scope of her dreams, it is almost like we dream in tandem, and that neither dreams exactly what the other does - but that they are almost designed to fit together to solve the riddle when compared.

Make sense?

- Trapper -

[Sherriann]

I dream in very short films, 10 second Youtube videos and pictures. All in color. Oh, and the sounds and voices. *L* Occasionally, a smell or a direct attack. Mostly, I'm a watcher. I'm not a prolific dreamer and tend to only remember the last bits before I wake. My alarm clock is a big nuisance! I keep a note pad beside my bed and scribble in the dark.

[Nanny]

I think my dreams are quite realistic in the smell category, but can't right now say positively.
I have never awakened laughing or crying, but I am rather quiet and don't laugh aloud as easily as other folks.

Cool about you and hubby's dreams. Reminds me that my two sisters once had the same dream same, week. They both dreamed that my sister's ex's new wife which had just had a baby.....that the baby lost the mom and that my sister, the ex-wife, had to take care of the baby longterm. Ten or so years later, that "baby" told my sister that she wished she could stay and live with my sister and her new hubby.

Nanny, I dream in both... B&W and Color... but i often have dreams that I can feel texture, smell and even taste items! These are the ones most disturbing to me as they seem so real I have woke myself by crying screaming and yes on the rare occasion laughing uncontrollably.  

My only regret is that more often than not, I wake and can remember I was dreaming but not the details... This saddens me because I believe our dreams a messages to us, though not always clear in definition but still messages all the same. My husband and I often discuss our dreams and try to decipher them between each other... Often we find similarities in our dreams.

---

I, too am really disappointed when I awaken, immediately remember I had been dreaming but can't recall about what. Sometimes, I think about how I feel/suspect that I had so many "mind clutter?" dreams that it had been like TV channel surfing. But yeah, dreams have to be really important or have made a big impression on me for me to remember them. Therefore, I tend to feel as if I don't dream very often.