The benefits of daydreaming - Elizabeth Cox
On a daily basis, you spend
between a third and half
your waking hours daydreaming.
That may sound like a huge waste of time,
but scientists think it must have
some purpose,
or humans wouldn’t have evolved
to do so much of it.
So to figure out what's going on here,
let’s take a closer look
at the mind-wanderer in chief:
the bored teenager.
Wouldn’t it be cool to discover something,
anything.
Like even this plant.
Just to be one of those explorers who
sails around drawing stuff
for years on end
and everyone thinks they’re a genius.
But does anyone even do that anymore?
Is there anything left to discover?
And would I be tough enough to deal
with the dysentery or scurvy
or piranhas or whatever?
I barely have the endurance
to make it through track practice...
but I will.
Any day now, I’ll have the
discipline to show up before sunrise
and practice.
I’ll win all my races.
Winning will become so easy,
I’ll pick up other events just for fun.
And once I'm in the Olympics,
they’ll have no choice
but to crown me team captain,
which I will graciously accept.
And will I be nasty to the teammate
who yelled at me?
No.
I’ll just calmly say,
“hope you’re in a better mood.”
Okay. Yours and other people's daydreams
might sound or feel something like that.
Let's see what was going on.
To see what parts of the brain are active
when you’re doing a task, or thinking,
or daydreaming,
scientists use brain imaging techniques
that show
increased blood flow and energy
expenditure in those areas.
These brain areas are active,
working together and communicating
with each other.
Taken together, they're called
the executive network.
When your mind starts to wander,
a different set of brain areas
becomes active.
These areas make up the
default mode network.
The name default mode makes it sound
like nothing is going on.
And in fact, for many years,
scientists associated this pattern
of activity with rest.
But a closer look reveals that these
are the brain areas involved
when we revisit a memory, when we think
about our plans and hopes,
and yes, when our minds are wandering
off on a wild daydream.
The mind can wander to unproductive
or distressing places
and brood over negative past events,
like an argument.
It can also wander to neutral,
everyday matters,
like planning out the rest
of one's afternoon.
But where mind-wandering
really gets interesting
is when it crosses into the realm
of free-moving associative thought
that you aren’t consciously directing.
This kind of mind-wandering is associated
with increases in both ideas
and positive emotions,
and the evidence suggests that daydreaming
can help people envision ways
to reach their goals and navigate
relationships and social situations.
Scientists think there may be
two essential parts to this process:
a generative phase of free-flowing ideas
and spontaneous thoughts,
courtesy of the default mode network,
followed by a process of selecting,
developing, and pursuing
the best ideas from that generative burst,
driven by logical thinking
thanks to the executive network.
A host of imaging studies suggest that
these two networks working in sync
is a crucial condition
for creative thinking.
Taken together, the evidence clearly
suggests
the logical realm of the executive network
and the imaginative realm
of the default mode network
are closely related.
And as you can see, the executive network
is still playing a role
when the default mode network is
doing its thing during daydreaming.
In teenagers,
the prefrontal cortex and other areas
involved in executive function
are still developing,
but teens are perfectly capable of
thinking through their problems and goals,
especially when given space to do so
on their own.
