There was a fascinating report in the Daily Telegraph (free in my hotel at the weekend, before you accuse me of buying such filth!) entitled:
“TV of childhood decides colour of your dreams.”
It discussed research at Dundee University, which suggests that “almost all under-25s dream in colour”, whilst those who “were brought up with black and white sets often dream in monochrome”.
Now, I know I’m making myself a hostage to fortune here; I can sense Smudge and others gleefully exploiting the opportunity to make me feel old. But the first TV I watched as a kid was black and white; it was my Grandad who saved up to buy my parents a new set so that I could watch in colour, by which time I must have been six or seven.
I’ve always been conscious that my sub-conscious works in black and white: if I’m trying to picture a place I’ve not visited, the images I form are always monochrome. Even the most colourful of memories rarely are in colour as I recall scenes in my mind’s eye.
But what of spanking dreams? I have a suspicion that they too are black and white. I wonder… Next time I give a girl a bright grey bottom from a dreamland spanking, I’ll let you know.
I dream in glorious technicolour, so I must be young really! I think it was when I was about 4 or 5 that we got a colour television, certainly before most programmes actually broadcast in colour… so perhaps my dreaming is influenced by the fact that my parents didn’t let me watch much TV. A very interesting piece of research, I intend to ask everyone I talk to today and see if they are colour or black and white dreamers, and if they impart information on spanking dreams, all the better!
I’m not going to make you feel old, because that’s really interesting… I always dream in colour. It’s so weird to think of you seeing everything in black and white in your head!
So what about people who never had tv, before it was invented. They’d dream in colour, right?
Of course we’re not going to make fun of you for being ancient (I’m sorry, but black & white tv’s do equal ancient in my world) because of this. It’s just too easy, where’s the fun in that?
I always dream in colour. So now I also want to know why I have dreamt in English instead of Dutch since I was 10 or 11. It’s not as if I spoke more English than Dutch, and my English wasn’t, ahem, brilliant at the time.
OMG that’s true, Irelynn… as of the second night of my German exchange, I had dreams in German. I’m not even good at German. I can barely string together a sentence. But in my dreams, for the whole time I was Germany (both times) my dreams were German.
Interesting, as I’ve always wondered if there is a connection, but I am just a bit skeptical.
I know two men well into their fifties and another over 80, all of whom dream in very vivid color and none of whom had color televisions.
Would still love to see the study, however.
Ms. Betty
It’s a neat theory, and I certainly dream in colour. But what about people who don’t have a TV? People who don’t live in a culture where moving images are available? What about people who lived before 1900? Or 1800? What colour did they dream in? I’m sorry, but I’m not convinced
You really dream in black and white? That’s so interesting! I can’t imagine dreaming in black and white… full technicolour for me. It’s so interesting in fact, I’ve lost all desire to tease. What a shame!
Pandora, why would you dream in black and white if you didn’t have a telly to trigger the black-and-whiteness? Surely folks sans tellies would dream in colour 😉
I dream in colour despite my first telly having been black and white. My parents were very anti-TV when I was little, and didn’t get one at all until I started school and couldn’t join in the playground gossip, which was all about He-Man and She-Ra and I didn’t know who they were. So my seventies-hippy folks (dad in cords, mum in flared dungarees), who’d originally thought that TV was antisocial and thus bad for me, bought a black and white portable (with a dial that you had to turn to change channel, complete with snowstorms in between channels, like an fm radio for the youngsters in the audience!) to enable me to socialise. Which, even at the tender age of four, I thought was quite ironic 😉
Anyway, I guess my dreams fit in with the no-TV crowd…
Ha!
I ran that news story in my show this morning!
And I’ve only had one black and white dream ever.
Coming from an anti-consumerist Soviet world, I didn’t set my eyes on a colour TV until I was about 12.
I dream in colour, though. Don’t know if I always have!
I’m horrified that you think we’d mock your age. I love your stories about the olden days, after all, I took a History A-Level…
Bright grey?! Is that really what it looks like in your dreams?? That’s so interesting! I can’t even *imagine* dreaming without color!