daydream

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Daydream by Paul César Helleu

A daydream is a visionary fantasy experienced while awake, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions.^[1] There are so many different types of daydreaming that there is still no consensus definition amongst psychologists.^[1] While daydreams may include fantasies about future scenarios or plans, reminiscences about past experiences, or vivid dream-like images, they are often connected with some type of emotion.

Daydreaming may take the form of a train of thought, leading the daydreamer away from being aware of his or her immediate surroundings, and concentrating more and more on these new directions of thought. To an observer, they may appear to be affecting a blank stare into the distance, and only a sudden stimulus will startle the daydreamer out of their reverie.

While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.

History

Daydreaming was long held in disrepute in society and was associated with laziness. In the late 1800s, Toni Nelson argued that some daydreams with grandiose fantasies are self-gratifying attempts at "wish fulfillment." In the 1950s, some educational psychologists warned parents not to let their children daydream, for fear that the children may be sucked into "neurosis and even psychosis."^[1]

In the late 1960s, psychologist Jerome L. Singer of Yale University and psychologist John S. Antrobus of the City College of New York created a daydream questionnaire. The questionnaire, called the Imaginal Processes Inventory (IPI), has been used to investigate daydreams. Psychologists Leonard Giambra and George Huba used the IPI and found that daydreamers' imaginary images vary in three ways: how vivid or enjoyable the daydreams are, how many guilt- or fear-filled daydreams they have, and how "deeply" into the daydream people go. ^[1]

Recent research

Daydreaming gentleman in 1912

Eric Klinger's research in the 1980s showed that most daydreams are about ordinary, everyday events and help to remind us of mundane tasks. Klinger's research also showed that over 3/4 of workers in 'boring jobs,' such as lifeguards and truck drivers, use vivid daydreams to "ease the boredom" of their routine tasks. Klinger found that less than five percent of the workers' daydreams involved explicitly sexual thoughts and that violent daydreams were also uncommon.^[1]

Israeli high school students who scored high on the Daydreaming Scale of the IPI had more empathy than students who scored low. Some psychologists, such as Los Angeles’ Joseph E. Shorr, use the mental imagery created during their clients' daydreaming to help gain insight into their mental state and make diagnoses.^[2][3]

Other recent research has also shown that daydreaming, much like nighttime dreaming, is a time when the brain consolidates learning. Daydreaming may also help people to sort through problems and achieve success. Research with fMRI shows that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving become activated during day dreaming episodes.^[4][5]

Therapist Dan Jones looked at patterns in how people achieved success from Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson & Peter Jones to Geniuses like Albert Einstein & Leonardo Da Vinci. Jones also looked at the thinking styles of successful creative people like Beethoven & Walt Disney. What he found was that they all had one thing in common. They all spent time daydreaming about their area of success. ^[6]

Dreaming updates patterns in the mind. So when people dream of being successful they are more likely to become successful.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Sports psychologists have used this knowledge for years without making the connection to daydreaming. They would have sports people visualise success. Studies have shown that those that use visualisation outperform those that use practice alone.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Nowadays it is understood that visualisation or guided imagery is the same state of mind as daydreaming.

See also

• Absent-mindedness
• Thinking about the immortality of the crab
• Dreams
• Fantasy (psychology)
• Escapism
• Imaginary world
• Imagination
• Mind-wandering
• Pipe dream
• Stream of consciousness (psychology)

External links

Look up daydream in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Positive effects of daydreaming
• Daydreaming improves thinking (Cosmos Magazine)
• Daydreams and some words on dreams interpretation

References