How is colour generated in dreams?

Question

I dream in colour especially after eating cheese.
I thought you need light to see colours so how is dreaming in colour possible?

Answer 1

It is generated from the memories in our brain. There is a study that showed how fishes store and retrieve these memories which may be similar to human:

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin studying electric fish have gained new insight into how memory is stored at the level of neurons.

When electric fish zap each other in dark waters, their neurons store a memory of the sizzling communiqué by turning on special cell membrane channels.

The channels give the fish neurons the ability to retain a memory long after its original stimulus is gone.

There is short-term stimulation that results in long-term changes in excitability. “Essentially, it is memory.”

The electric fish discharge electrical signals to survey their environment and communicate with each other.

Every time they discharge, it’s kind of like they are opening their eyes and closing them. Each pulse of electricity is a snapshot of the environment. These guys are swimming around and discharging at a very regular frequency. They’re digitizing their environment.

Source:

Mechanism for memory revealed in neurons of electric fish
February 17, 2006

http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2006/02/neurobiology17.html

Answer 2

You dream in colour because colour only exists in the mind. In the real world our eyes can differentiate and identify different frequencies of light, but this does not give them " colour", which is added later by a small part of the brain called the V4.
This should give you a new view of life and all of your senses.

Answer 3

If you think about the last dream you had, chances are you will notice something you have seen before; for example, a place you have visited. In my dreams often it is a place I am very familiar with but things are slightly different, such as the placement of various items in a room. Your brain basically uses images it knows, has seen before, or makes its own images based on things it knows. If you close your eyes, think of some object, a picture automatically comes to mind. Is it in color? Unless you have always been color blind, I would expect it is in color. It basically comes down to your brain using its imagination.

Answer 4

Close your eyes, you automatically see colour spots flying around the place

when we see through our eyes we see an image, when were asleep we dream which is using the mind, your brain creates the colours just as it creates the dream

Answer 5

youre right - dreaming in colour isnt possible.
everyone dreams in black and white.

you just add the colours in afterwards when you wake up and remember the dreams to make it seem more like the world you are used to... thats why colours mean so much when youre describing dreams to people, cause they show your subconcious thoughts about things... interesting, huh?

Answer 6

Hi. The senses can all be replicated in a dream. Color, sound, images, pain. Just about anything.

Answer 7

They are created by your thoughts/imagination.
Because you are asleep, eyes are closed, there is nothing stimulating the optic nerve, so everything is generated by the chemical processes in the brain.

Answer 8

Great question!
Wish I had an answer though :(
My cat has climbed in the tumble dryer.

Answer 9

this is because you keep coloured pencils under yo pillow when sleeping especially when you eat cheese.

Answer 10

i heard that ppl dream in black and white !!!