Eva Murzyn, a psychology student at Dundee University who carried out the study, said: "It is a fascinating hypothesis.
"It suggests there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed.
"What is even more interesting is that before the advent of black and white television all the evidence suggests we were dreaming in colour."
Research from 1915 through to the 1950s suggested that the vast majority of dreams are in black and white but the tide turned in the sixties, and later results suggested that up to 83 per cent of dreams contain some colour.
Since this period also marked the transition between black-and-white film and TV and widespread Technicolor, an obvious explanation was that the media had been priming the subjects' dreams.
However it was always controversial and differences between the studies prevented the researchers from drawing any firm conclusions.
But now Miss Murzyn believes she has proved the link. She re-looked at the old studies and combined them with a survey of her own of more 60 people, half of which were over 55 and half of which were under 25.