It’s black and white: TV influences your dreams
- 10:52 17 October 2008
- NewScientist.com news service
- David Robson
The moment when Dorothy passes out in monochrome Kansas and awakes in Technicolor Oz may have been more significant than you’d ever imagined. A new study reveals that children exposed to black-and-white film and TV are more likely to dream in greyscale throughout their life.
Opinions have been divided on the colour of dreams for almost a century. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s suggested that the vast majority of dreams are in black and white. But the tides turned in the 60s, and later results suggested that up to 83% of dreams contain some colour.
Since this period also marked the transition between black-and-white film and TV and widespread Technicolor, an obvious explanation was that the media had been