Content analysis on the potential significance of color in dreams: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

The potential significance and stimulus of color in dreams was postulated from a content analysis of color in spontaneously recalled dream reports.  The analysis was performed on 15,245 dream reports in the DreamBank.net database, plus 12,841dream reports from long-term dream journals.  One objective was to determine, to the degree possible from content analysis, whether dream color reports simply reflect our waking visual experience or if the colors reported are influenced by physiological or psychological factors or both.  The conclusion from the observed data was that the color recalled from dreams is neither a direct reflection of the waking visual experience nor does it reflect personal associations alone, but rather dream color appears to align with common neurological or physiological mechanisms involved in the human perception of or reaction to color, which may in turn be influenced strongly by individual emotional or psychological factors.