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Have you ever felt stuck on a problem? Your head goes blank and you cannot seem to think of any solution.
Frustrated, you try concentrating harder on the issue. Nothing still.
Perhaps daydreaming might be the solution for you.
Daydreaming?! In a society obsessed with results and productivity, daydreaming may come across as a lazy, irresponsible and disgraceful act. However, advances in neuroscience have shown that letting your mind wander actually brings about several benefits ranging from improved creativity, mood and better planning.
Mind wandering vs Rumination: They are not the same
In the neuroscience world, some scientists have concluded mind wandering makes us unhappy. Matt Killingsworth’s Track Your Happiness project has shown that when we let our minds wander, we often think about negative thought and get stuck thinking about the same thoughts over and over again, what neuroscientists call rumination.
However, there is a growing body of cognitive scientists such as Dr Zachary Irving who argues that rumination is inherently different from mind wandering. An assistant professor at University of Vagina, Dr Irving says mind wandering has no purpose; our mind drifts aimlessly from one thought to the next. Therefore, it is a form of unguided attention. In contrast, when we are ruminating, we are deliberately focused on our distress, making it a form of guided attention.
What are the benefits of letting your mind wander?
1. Mind wandering improves your creativity
Imagine you are on a bus ride, staring out the window and letting your mind drift. Suddenly you come to the sudden realization:
“Hershey’s kisses are actually just large chocolate chips!”.
Wait how did I think of that?
Mind wandering serves as a foundation for creative thinking, enabling us to conjure realizations unexpectedly as we set our minds adrift.
It may seem counterintuitive, but letting our mind drift can actually help us solve problems when focusing on them does not work. While we are daydreaming, our subconscious mind is drawing links from various sources to solve the problem at hand, also known as divergent thinking.
Erik Dane, associate professor of organizational behavior at Olin, and Hector P. Madrid of Pontificia Universidad conducted a study to establish the relationship between daydreaming and creativity in the workplace, studying hundreds of employees from a wide variety of industries. They found that workers who daydream are able to exhibit more creativity in their work, tackling challenges in new ways. However, this is if they met one criterion: they care deeply about their task at hand. Workers who did not identify themselves with their work had uneventful daydreaming sessions and were found to be unproductive.
2. Mind wandering improves our mental health
Mind wandering allows the brain to relax and take a break. A team at UC Berkley used an electroencephalogram or EEG to track the brain waves of people to investigate the differences in brain waves emitted when the people exhibit different types of thought. They found that those participants who had let their mind wander had strong alpha waves in the frontal lobes; alpha waves cannot be emitted when the person is focused. Alpha waves are associated with being relaxed and show up in the early part of sleep. So, when we let our mind wander, we are letting our prefrontal lobes, the part responsible for focus and planning to rest and recuperate.
Additionally, letting our minds wander has been linked to increased happiness. A study found that those participants who were engaged in interesting off task musings had seen an improvement in their mood. You could daydream about your ideal vacation in the Bahamas or you’re thinking about your favourite comfort food and that very thought would make you happier.
3. Mind wandering improves your performance
As covered earlier, mind wandering allows the brain to take a break. In allowing your mind to wander for a short moment and returning to the task at hand, you approach the task with fresh eyes, boosting your focus and overall performance. Dr Benjamin Mooneyham and Dr Johnathan Schooler from the University of California investigated if a person could handle repetitive task better after a short period of allowing the mind to wander. They found that people’s attention on these repetitive tasks actually improved slightly after allowing their mind to wander. Mind wandering has been associated with increased beta activity which is important for being alert and attentive and allows for the processing of information to handle complex tasks. With regular periods of rest and relaxation from letting our mind wander, our productivity and focus improves.
How screens are making us focused all the time
It is thus unfortunate that we are glued to our screens almost all the time. When we feel disengaged, we instinctively whip out our smartphones. According to data analytics firm App Annie, we spend an average of 4.2 hours on our smartphones. Social media has also become a prevalent part of our lives. On average, we spend 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media. Driven by the need to feel productive, we constantly are searching for something to do, or at least to seem busy. Consequently, our minds are always scrambling to focus on something and hardly gets a break. Instead of scrolling through our Facebook feed, perhaps we should put aside our devices and set aside some time for daydreaming and give our brains a much-needed break.
How do we incorporate daydreaming into our day?
Neuroscientist Dr Caroline Leaf is a strong advocate for daydreaming or what she calls thinker moments. Allocate a set amount of time for us to have these ‘thinker moments’ . We can daydream while as we are listening to some music, taking a walk outside or doodling. These sessions can be as short as ten seconds to about an hour. Dr Leaf outlines a series of simple steps for us to incorporate daydreaming into our daily routine and emerge from it with a positive experience.
- Imagine yourself as the actor, director, scriptwriter and audience of a mental performance. It is your mental performance. You control everything.
- Close your eyes and let your mind wander.
- To kickstart the process, you can think of something pleasant and meaningful which would naturally guide you to think of other things. It can be a happy memory in the past, a vision you have for the future or something that you are looking forward to.
- Notice your thoughts and feelings as you are letting your mind wander. You may be surprised what thoughts and feelings surface during this period. Do not panic as it is perfectly normal. Take note of them and plan to tackle them later. However, avoid ruminating on them and letting them interrupt your ‘rest’ time.
- Slowly bring your attention back to your surroundings as you open your eyes.
So, the next time you feel like you are stuck on a problem, perhaps charging head on is not the solution. Rather, give your mind a break by allowing it to wander a little before coming back. It leaves you a little more refreshed, a little happier and a little more creative to better tackle the task at hand.