THE invention of TV may have had an unexpected side effect. Children brought up on black-and-white films are more likely to dream in greyscale than those fed a diet of colour.
There has long been evidence that film tints dreams. People reported dreaming in colour before 1915, then they switched to black and white with the advent of movies. After colour TV became widely available, reports of colour dreams reappeared. But because the earlier studies were based on questionnaires, not daily “dream diaries”, it was unclear whether people in the early studies recalled the colours correctly.
from the University of Dundee, UK, compared 60 people’s recollection of their dreams’ colour with a daily diary of the colour they dreamed in. As the descriptions matched the diaries, she concluded people’s recall was accurate in the early studies and that our dreams are indeed affected by TV and film (Consciousness and Cognition, ).
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The effect seems long-lasting. Over-55s who watched only black-and-white TV as children reported dreaming in greyscale more than those brought up on colour. “There could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed,” says Murzyn. Although film forms a fraction of our experiences, it imprints deeply on the brain because it heightens emotional engagement.
