Do you dream in color or in black and white?
This question, common in my childhood, must seem nonsense to the next generations, as to people throughout most of history.
I clearly remember dreaming in color, but just as clearly I know I frequently dreamt in black and white. The one vividly-colored dream I remember well occurred before we had a television set, and that's significant. What possible reason could there be for black and white dreams except the influence of black and white television?
I thought of that recently as I observed the curious phenomenon that dream time apparently bears no resemblance to real time. I wake up and look at the clock. Fifteen minutes later I awaken again and realize that although only fifteen minutes have passed, the dream I had awakened from had seemingly covered hours of time.
How does the brain do that? Is it natural, or is it, like the black and white dreams, a product of familiarity with the time-compression common to movies and television shows?
I suspect it is natural. In movies, the time compression skips time. In my dreams, at least, it feels in the dream as if all the time has taken place. Then I wake up to discover that only minutes have gone by.
