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

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 a total of 38,063 dream reports: 25,222 dream reports in the DreamBank.net database, plus 12,841 dream reports from eight long-term dream journals. The focus was not on reporting the presence or absence of color, as in most prior studies, but rather on the relative frequency of specific colors reported. The 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 specific colors recalled from a dream is not dominated by the waking visual experience nor by personal preferences, but rather dream color appears to align with neurological mechanisms involved in the perception of color as well as psychological factors including the human emotional response to color.