I Just Learned The 1 Wild Effect TV Has On Our Dreams, And I Can't Believe It

It sounds fake, but is backed by science.
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Svetlana Repnitskaya via Getty Images

If I told you people who grew up with black and white TV have greyscale dreams while those who had colour TV don’t, would you believe me? 

Well, I didn’t when I first discovered the fact ― but shockingly, it seems to be true.

Multiple studies between 1915 and the ’50s found that people dreamed in black and white. For instance, a 1942 study found that college students “rarely” or “never” saw colour in their dreams.

But after the ’60s ― when colour TV had become mainstream ―up to 83% of people studied said they dreamt in colour.


Really? 

It seems so.

A 2008 study found that people who were under 25 at the time almost all dreamt in black and white, while the participants who were over 55 had predominantly greyscale dreams.

And if you’re thinking, ‘what about people who grew up with no TV at all?’, the study says its results “point to the possibility that true greyscale dreams occur only in people with black and white media experience.” 

Eva Murzyn, who published the study as part of her PhD for the University of Dundee, found that only 4.4% of the under-25s had black-and-white dreams. 

Meanwhile, over-55s who had grown up with colour television only dreamt in greyscale 7.3% of the time ― but for those who had black-and-white tellies growing up, the number rose to roughly a quarter. 


Why? 

Well, we don’t have a straight answer. But Murzyn suggested some theories in her paper. 

“There could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed,” she suggested. Specifically, “exposure to coloured media before the age of 11 was strongly correlated with reporting of coloured dreaming.” 

“Movies are emotionally intense and involving, which could promote the incorporation of colour schemes into dream production (and would explain why static media such as paintings and photography did not apparently impact dreaming),” she added. 

Then, there’s a possibility that the media we consume affects our recollection of the dream ― perhaps we really dreamt in colour, but remembered the dream in black and white. 

Further, she says that people who are asked about their dreams long after they’d had them ― as happened in plenty of earlier studies ― people may forget details like colour when recalling their dreams. 

However she notes that this is not the case of all older studies, pointing to three studies across decades which awoke study participants mid-REM stage and immediately asked them about their dreams. 

And across multiple studies across decades, the link between your TV’s colour capabilities and the hue of your dreams has seemed strong.