It’s something that 96% of adults do. Some estimates are that 47% of our time is spent daydreaming. As we learn more and more about our brains, we have begun to learn more about daydreaming and its role in our being human.
Not all daydreams are the same. Some can be harmful, others distracting, and some can lead us to new possibilities. The harmful daydreams are called guilty dysphoria. These are anxious imaginations of things that may happen. Poor attention control daydreams are perhaps the most common, especially for college students in class or working adults during a Zoom call. These are times when we are bored and thinking of other things. The daydreams that lead to possibilities are called positive constructive daydreaming (PCD). These are daydreams when we make breakthroughs in our thinking.
When neuroscientists were studying attention and memory, they noticed that parts of the brain became more active when the brain was less engaged with memory and attention. Rather than resting, different parts of the brain became engaged. We now know those parts of the brain as the default mode network (DMN).
The DMN turns itself on and generates thinking independent of what is occurring in the environment the human is in at that time. In effect, the DMN is the catalyst for daydreaming.
When the DMN allows us to have positive constructive daydreams, it enables:
- Our ability to reflect on experiences.
- Exploration of a future breakthrough possibility.
- Understanding of how others are thinking.
We are also discovering that positive constructive daydreams can strengthen the cerebral cortex region of the brain. This can retard the cognitive decline of aging.
As we learn more about the brain, we are also beginning to rethink the very concept of intelligence. For most of human existence, intelligence was thought to involve controlled and deliberate reasoning. There is little disagreement that these represent one aspect of intelligence. But we are now beginning to understand that there is another component of intelligence. This component focuses more on spontaneous forms of thinking, such as daydreaming, insight, and imagination.
Daydreaming is in transition as a human trait from one that we should discourage to one that can be vital to human existence if used properly.
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“Don’t give up on your daydream! That little voice inside is telling you how to live your life with intent & purpose.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson