The Benefits of Daydreaming

Does your mind wander? As you sit in a tedious meeting, do you instead picture yourself lounging on a beach somewhere - your own private beach in the Bahamas, perhaps - ten years from now? When you're typing numbers into long dreary columns, do you imagine the glorious day when you can march into Head Office and describe, in graphic detail, where your boss can stick their measly job because you have made a life-changing discovery?

Human minds wander 47% of the time we're awake (the one time our minds never wander is during sex; apparently, that takes our full concentration). Most of us were told to stop daydreaming in school. Daydreaming was a vice. It was unhealthy. It did nothing but fill our heads with a lot of silly dreams. Or did it? In fact, it has been discovered that there are many benefits to daydreaming.

Let's examine them now.

Creativity

Daydreaming is the natural state of the un-distracted, conscious mind. You sit, idling time away, and you suddenly wonder what you might do if you won the lottery. You'd set your grandmother up in a nice house. Establish a charitable foundation, of course. Should education be your cause or healthcare? You could open your own school perhaps...It's pure fantasy, since you're yet to buy a lottery ticket. But it has it's uses. This fantastical , exploring state of mind supports your vital creative skills of inspiration and discovery. Fantastical daydreaming has lead to some of our greatest thinkers' greatest discoveries.

Albert Einstein dreamed of riding a beam of light, and imagined trains moving at the speed of light. This helped him discover his theory of space and time. Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling came to understand chemical bonding as he sat at home, bored to tears with a bad cold, unpicking asbestos (don't try that at home: asbestos causes lung disease).

Empathy

Research into imagination, memory and empathy suggests that using daydreaming to imagine events may help us to understand the feelings of another person, to help us understand what they are experiencing.

Author J.K Rowling has explained that exploring her imagination has given her greater empathy. In her 2008 Harvard commencement address, she said, "In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared."

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Better Performance on Tasks

There was a study to test the correlation of the participants' working memory and tendency to daydream. First, the researchers asked the participants to do an easy task that might lead to daydreaming (such as pushing a button). Then they measured the participants' working memory by asking each participant to remember a series of letters and asking them easy math questions.

It was found that participants who daydreamed more frequently were better at remembering the series of letters and answering the math questions, when compared to the participants whose minds didn't wander.

The study suggested that our working memory (the system responsible for holding and processing new information) is linked to our ability to think beyond our surroundings. In other words, our ability to think is linked to our ability to daydream.

Yet More Benefits Of Daydreaming

Feeling loved

Most of our daydreams, up to 73% of them, feature social interactions with other people. This is because we're social animals, communication is a human need. Yet many of us are separated from our loved-ones, having to take jobs in other cities, away from the people we love, only communicating on the internet. Surely, it can be no surprise that our most common daydreams feature face-to-face interactions with other people.

It has been found that everyday daydreams featuring other people has been linked with greater feelings of love and connectedness. Happiness was also increased. These effects were not found in daydreams without social interactions. It was also found that daydreaming about close loved ones was particularly beneficial to our sense of wellbeing.

Future-planning

Daydreaming doesn't just present the opportunity for fantasising about a future in which you have a better job, a nicer house, or a family. Daydreaming can also inspire you to go for it. There is evidence that daydreaming gives you the grit you need to ignore distractions and write that novel, to get up the courage and ask your boss for a raise, to start saving money for a deposit on that house you keep dreaming about.

Future-planning in daydreaming isn't merely about fantasising. It can also give you the grit and determination to chase your dreams and turn them into reality.

Relief from Distress

Daydreaming can be a restful activity, allowing us to escape from a world in which we might be sick, or in pain, or experiencing a bitter break-up. Through daydreaming, we can escape the confines of our lives and look forward to a happier future: a future where we are healthy, can walk without pain, or have met someone new. This mental break is refreshing.

Happiness

Indulging in creative daydreams makes you happier. 105 students were asked to keep track of their moods, and if their minds were wandering, or if they were daydreaming. It was found that students who felt aimlessly distracted felt negatively about it. However, students who indulged in interesting or creative daydreams found that their happiness was increased.

Concerns about Daydreaming

is mostly good for us, leading to improved mood, increased creativity, and better performance. However, daydreaming can decrease our mood. This happens if we embark on self-focused., self-destructive, negative thoughts. Such thoughts could lead to depression. If you find your daydreams becoming negative, it's important you stop them immediately. Simply say "stop", and direct your thoughts to something more positive.

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Conclusion

So there you have it. Seven benefits of daydreaming. Daydreaming gets a lot of unfair bad press. We've been warned against it since we were children. But if you open your mind to the possibilities, it has the potential to enrich our lives in so many ways: making us happier, more fulfilled, and even improving our memories.

So try a daydream today. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to win the lottery.

Happy dreaming!