Daydreaming…..
A daydream is a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake. Some people may devote 50% of their awake time with daydreaming. Recently a case study was published in which a 36 year old female has a long history of excessive daydreaming. As a child between 4 to 10 years of age she would spend periods of free time, sometimes several hours, walking in circles shaking a string, while imagining creative stories in which she was the central focus, i.e., ‘‘just like playing school with other kids, but in my head.” Extensive psychiatric and somatic investigations could not find anything wrong with her.
Daydreaming is often associated with hypnotic susceptibility, creativity, dissociation, past trauma or pathology. High fantasizers constituting 4% of the population are those with devoting their awake time with daydreaming. This can amount to 50% of their time being awake. Daydreaming decreases with age, suggesting that it might be normal for normal healthy brain development.
Daydreaming is believed to be one of the altered states of consciousness, the others being: dreaming, the runner’s high, meditation, hypnosis, and various drug-induced states. As with meditation and hypnosis, daydreaming is characterized by drifting, transitory thoughts and a sense of timelessness. However, all three alterations of consciousness share the feature of toning-down external noise as a prerequisite to enable the mental state.
Videogames also takes individuals into fantasies, another world. Videogaming and daydreaming both share an involvement with fantasy. They differ in stimulus dependency. Gaming is more stimulus dependent, while daydreaming is relatively stimulus independent. In a recent published study they looked at the relationship between daydreaming and videogaming. This exploratory study was done in a selected population of 74 participants ( 22 males) from undergraduate psychology courses at a Midwestern university.
high videogaming engagement appears to be associated with a positive-constructive daydreaming style. … positive daydreaming is characterized by enjoyment and anticipation of daydreaming as assisting in problem solving and without any pathological implications
Daydreaming can be constructive not only in videogaming. It’s not a lazy, non-productive pastime, it is now commonly acknowledged that daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. It can be productive in developing new ideas, or improve creativity.
Cynthia Schupak, & Jesse Rosenthal (2009). Excessive daydreaming: A case history and discussion of mind
wandering and high fantasy proneness Consciousness and Cognition DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.10.002
Arne Dietrich (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of altered states
of consciousness: The transient
hypofrontality hypothesis Consciousness and Cognition DOI: 10.1016/S1053-8100(02)00046-6
Barry Dauphin, Ph.D., & Grant Heller, B.A. (2010). Going to Other Worlds: The Relationships
between Videogaming, Psychological Absorption, and Daydreaming Styles CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0065
September 9, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
When I was in grade school, I had a very rigid teacher. I don’t remember learning anything. She used to make us wear our pencils around our necks on a string if we dropped the pencil three times. She kept track. I spent a lot of time daydreaming out the window. She yanked me out of the room by my chin one time and told me that I’d just had an IQ test and I was supposed to be “a very smart girl”. I can still remember the feel of a penny in my pocket as she scolded me.
September 10, 2010 @ 8:14 am
Besides daydreaming you were probably bored as well, take care, Dr Shock
September 15, 2010 @ 8:52 pm
Dear DR Shock
I have a 11 year old boy. His teacher and evaluation suggest he is very smart. He does daydreams a lot and hence is unable to finish his work. He does some video games only on weekends,but does have the capacity to go on playing unless restricted. Is this normal or there is need of intervention.
I appreciate your response
September 15, 2010 @ 10:46 pm
Please consult your physician, take care Dr Shock
September 26, 2010 @ 7:02 am
I am the webmaster of the website sited here. I participated in the excessive daydreaming clinical study by Dr.Cynthia Schupak (her initial article is listed above, next to “Research Blogging.”
I suffer from what is currently called Maladaptive Daydreaming. This is a condition, only now being studied, that causes excessive, obsessive daydreaming that creates significant problems and disruption in a persons’ life.
Listed on the site are symptoms that appear common to this problem. Anyone reading this who finds that daydreaming creates distress in their lives might want to look at this site.
September 28, 2010 @ 8:50 pm
Dear Dr. Shock,
My son daydreams a lot. He’s 7 1/2 years old, but in school he’s doing great. He tells me sometimes that he think he’s weired because he daydreams a lot, and he mostly daydreams about saving people from bad guys, or giving poor people money…
What could be the reason for too much daydreaming. sometimes he’s absent minded when someone talk to him. I thought it was ADD, but he doesn’t have any symptoms of ADD.
Please help with this, it really worries me a lot.
October 1, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
Please see your GP, take care
Threats to Daydreaming and it’s Benefits | Dr Shock MD PhD
October 7, 2010 @ 8:50 am
[…] discussed daydreaming and it’s advantages before on this blog. In this short video Jonah Lehrer discusses whether access to the Internet […]
October 9, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
Very Nice blog…
October 21, 2010 @ 3:32 am
I am 16 and I find myself daydreaming very often. I just doze off nothing is going on in my head but I am staring blankly at anything and I don’t even realize it. Sometimes it is pleasent like I don’t want to phase out of my daydreaming although I am not thinking or imagining anything
» daydreaming: is the library a great place for it? Bibliodox
October 31, 2010 @ 3:40 pm
[…] discussed daydreaming and it’s advantages before on this blog. In this short video Jonah Lehrer discusses whether access to the Internet […]
November 13, 2010 @ 4:41 am
First of all, this woman resembles me. Foremost, I did this and DO this as a 24 year old. This is life changing, I’m so emotional and thrilled and there’s no one here but my blackberry and myself in a dark room on a friday night. But I’m relieved. Thank you internet, thank you mental health researchers.
I would play with a hose for hours and make the water twists and spins, daydreaming(it was never about me though) imy mom said it started when I was three and I gallopped a horse around a living room for hours. Mostly, I would go to a room and shake something like a pencil, or anything else. I’d find a specific toy and use that until I lost it or it broke. Sounds wierd but its true. Oh and by the way, I was/am normal to everyone. No one but my fam knows ab it. No one things its an issue (except I sometimes wondered..) I have always liked/been liked by everyone and I never had probs in school. I do have adhd and just found that out a year ago. My confidence is now shot, started taking adhd medicine, and I’m a different person plus my hair is falling out : (. I have always known I’m different, but its undetectable to others. Before last year people wanted to be more like me bc of my personality. I have never been so lost, but I think I’m on to something tonight.
Help? If you need any help with anything, I’m unemployed and passionate about this topic. I was thinking earlier that I want to contact mayo clinic to be studied or help drs understand my type of brain. I analyze my thoughts correctly and well and always have.
November 13, 2010 @ 4:57 am
one more thing..in response to an earlier post that also surprised me. As a 7/8 year old I daydreamed ab getting wolves to like me, and bad people. I was sure they would.I always see the good in everyone.I think your greatest strength is your greatest weakness.I also get most angry when people are selfish. I toughened up as an adult really quickly. Not everyone is good.and everyone is different bc of factors they can’t help for the most part.
December 15, 2010 @ 5:52 am
Just want to say, I am so incredibly relieved and happy to have found this information. I never thought I’d ever find anything like what I go through. I’ve been searching the internet forever. I am near tears, I am so happy. I am currently seeing a therapist for anxiety and depression, and I will mention this to her and see what she thinks. Thanks for posting this.
April 3, 2011 @ 11:07 am
well IF i will talk about myself then i am a big day dreamer and i found it negative coze i am doing engineering i must have to concentrate on my lectures but this day dreaming actuall i think one should dream about the things that he is capable to catch
can some one help me how could i get ride of this thing
July 2, 2011 @ 11:31 pm
Hey, I just wanted to drop a quick note to say I like your blog a lot. It seems like you post about fun stuff…more than I can say for many of the boring blogs I see out there! Dug this post a lot, Thanks.
October 17, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
My friend is going into daydreans all the time and if we poke her or say her name she dosen’t realise and she cant feel it. when she comes out of day dreams she dosent remember a thing could you help?
October 31, 2011 @ 9:16 am
I daydream excessively and it’s stopping e from concentrating on my school work as whenever I start to study, I day dream. How can I stop day dreaming. I really need help.
November 7, 2011 @ 2:50 am
You may have what is called Maladaptive Daydreaming. It’s a condition that causes excessive, obsessive daydreaming. The daydreaming is often elaborate and detailed, like a book or movie. Take a look at the website, it has a list of possible treatment options.