It can represent a bad situation for you or something dark going on in your life. It may also represent mystery or death, as well as feeling unloved. In your dream, the blackness could represent you trying to swim through your subconscious, or it could be a representation of death to an old life.
Black Color Psychology
In color psychology, black's color meaning is symbolic of mystery, power, elegance, and sophistication. In contrast, the color meaning can also evoke emotions such as sadness and anger.
Dreaming of light colors can indicate positive emotions, safety, psychic balance, and feelings of hope. On the contrary, dark nuances can symbolize negative emotions and even depression. Darkness in dreams represents the unconscious, danger, and uncertainty.
Studies like this confirmed for many researchers in the field of dream psychology that dreams are by nature grayscale. Color was rare, appearing only when associated with emotionally charged events, or in some cases, the result of psychologically repressed and excremental contents!
Interest in this question has been recently revived when a surprising inconsistency in the results of the early and later studies was discovered by Schwitzgebel (2002). The research conducted in the early 20th century unanimously concluded that the vast majority of people dream in black and white.
When awakened while dreaming, people rend to report that their dreams contained vivid colors seventy percent of the time and vague color 13 percent of the time, but outside of scientific studies, only 25 to 29 percent of people say that they dream in color. So many of us do dream in color but don't properly remember.
Scientific REM studies have proven that we tend to dream in colours but we do not always recall them. The meaning of colours in dreams is not just indicative of the dreamer's emotional state but also one's personality traits.
“Since dreams are thought to primarily occur during REM sleep, the sleep stage when the MCH cells turn on, activation of these cells may prevent the content of a dream from being stored in the hippocampus – consequently, the dream is quickly forgotten.”
In most cases, white represents pure light, and black represents darkness. Famous artists like Marinus Boezem and Jorge Baldessari used black and white coloration in their paintings to represent contrasting ideas or parts of nature. In many cultures, white is seen as the color of innocence, purity, peace, and loyalty.
Your dream may be a way of dealing with loss and grief, especially if someone close has passed away. If you have nightmares about someone, it may signify that you are trying to keep them safe (such as a child) Dreaming of someone from your past may be a sign that you want them back in your life.
Researchers have found the color blue induces feelings of tranquility and peacefulness, the opposite of anxiety. A blue room doesn't alert the mind, and instead, promotes calm, so you feel more at ease—you're likely to fall asleep and stay asleep than you would if sleeping in a brightly-painted bedroom.
Women are more likely to report remembering their dreams than men, but there is a larger difference by age. Four in 10 adults under 30 say they remember their dreams at least most of the time. Americans over 30 are less likely to report remembering their dreams: more than a third say they rarely or never remember them.
The color blue is associated with calm and relaxation, and has even been shown to reduce blood pressure and to relax the mind. That makes for a good segway into a night of sleep! Yellow and green were also shown to be relatively sleep-inducing colors.
Black is not the happiest of colors in traditional Chinese color symbolism, representing destruction, evil, cruelty, and sadness. The Chinese word for black is 'hei' which stands for bad luck, irregularity, and illegality.
Throughout history, for many cultures and societies, black and white have stood as opposites: white the positive, pure light, black its negative counterpart.
The family of someone who dies wears white mourning, in the hope that their loved ones are reborn again. The idea of white mourning, otherwise known as deuil blanc in French, was formed during the 16th century when white was worn by bereaved children and unmarried women.
Black traps space, while white opens space. Black evokes sophistication; white communicates innocence. It's clear: black and white are opposites.
Black is the strongest of the neutral colors. On the positive side, it's commonly associated with power, elegance, and formality. On the negative side, it can be associated with evil, death, and mystery. Black is the traditional color of mourning in many Western countries.
Sad colors are usually dark, muted and neutral, such as gray, brown, beige and certain shades of blue and green. In Western cultures, black is often considered the color of mourning, whereas in some East Asian countries, it's white. Sad colors. Illustration by Znik.
Our brain is not fully developed when we are born—it continues to grow and change during this important period of our lives. And, as our brain develops, so does our memory.
While recalling a dream suggests that you've reached a REM sleep cycle at some point during the night, it doesn't necessarily mean that you've had more or less of that important stage of sleep than if you don't remember dreaming.
"Dreams are often about identity, because we're figuring out who we are and what we need, and the beliefs and perspectives we hold," says Wallace. "If you feel unfulfilled, undervalued or not the person you want to be in waking life, your dreams will often reflect that.
The length of a dream can vary; they may last for a few seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase.
A general decline in the dream recall frequency is commonly reported in the elderly, and it is explained in terms of a diminished interest in dreaming and in its emotional salience. Although empirical evidence is not yet available, an alternative hypothesis associates this reduction to an age-related cognitive decline.