Psychology: Why we should daydream more often

When was the last time you indulged in daydreaming? Letting your thoughts wander and wander into all the little corners they go to on their own, if we let them? On "Deutschlandfunk Nova," neurobiologist Bernd Hufnagl describes such daydreaming as "non-goal-directed thinking." In other words, all thoughts that we don't consciously have and are conducting, for example, to solve a problem. Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert estimate that we spend about half of our waking hours daydreaming.

We often associate daydreaming with laziness, with avoiding work, or with difficulty concentrating. But it actually serves an important purpose—and often leads us to better solutions than controlled thinking. Because when we're not so desperately trying to develop new thoughts to tackle problems, but are able to relinquish control, we might come up with entirely new, creative ideas.

That's why daydreaming is good for us

When we daydream, we activate the "default mode network," the resting state network. "Being able to activate this network is really important and necessary in many ways," explains Bernd Hufnagl. "Because only by activating this network can we gain distance from our own actions. And that's necessary to gain an outside perspective on our lives. Only then can we reflect on what's going well – and what's not so good."

We tend to daydream especially often when we're performing monotonous activities, when we're following a familiar routine and don't really have to think about what we're doing. That's when our minds have time and space to wander. This could be jogging, household chores like ironing, washing dishes, or vacuuming, or tasks at work that we can accomplish with simple movements without having to concentrate on them. And if a certain boredom sets in because our minds aren't really being challenged, then our thoughts wander.

Study on "mind wandering"

Brain researchers Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan Schooler have long been exploring the topic of "mind wandering," or letting one's thoughts wander. For one study , for example, two groups of participants were asked to find original answers to creative questions. One group evaluated the ideas immediately, while the other group was allowed to distract themselves after considering the questions and only then began to process them. The result: The second group showed significantly greater inventiveness in their answers.

The two scientists were able to show that distracting ourselves, allowing our thoughts to flow freely and not channeling them into preconceived ideas, can actually lead to better results. A little distance often leads us to better ideas than dwelling on the problem.

Of course, there are also situations where more concentrated work on a specific task is required. In traffic, for example, we should focus more on our surroundings to avoid causing accidents. But if we manage to let our minds wander and indulge in daydreams in moments when we don't have to think consciously, this can potentially make us more productive.

mbl Brigitte

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