Do you know why daydreaming is good?

Prof. Know Why answers:

Call it woolgathering, but we all love to steal away from real life to indulge in roving thoughts or daydreaming. But what is daydreaming or rather, how do we define daydreaming? Daydreaming or mind-wandering - familiar to one and all, is more precisely defined as a state of mind where thoughts that are experienced by an individual are unrelated to what is going on in the environment around them.

Let’s see why and when we daydream? In the recent studies, researchers found that our minds often wander fancifully while we are engaged in familiar tasks, such as making a sandwich or doing a regular household work, because we don't need to concentrate on it. They observed that daydreaming could be the result of the brain mulling over important - but not immediately relevant - issues when the external environment ceases to pose interesting and engaging.

Scientists now have identified the regions of the brain responsible for our ability to daydream. A default network of cortical regions, including parts of the medial prefrontal cortex (involved in executive functions), the premotor cortex (which coordinates body movements), and the cingulate (part of the limbic system that is implicated in memory and learning) are said to be active when we daydream.

The studies claim that daydreaming relieves stress and those who daydream, can often be great problem-solvers as daydreaming improves thinking. History says it all – while Sir Isaac Newton sat under the apple tree daydreaming, gravity did its work! Therefore, it could be concluded, daydreaming is good as it is a look at the positive side-effects of the wandering mind. And the best part is, it can be done anywhere and at any hour.

So what are you waiting for?

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