Daydreaming: Wild Ambition

What is daydreaming?
Daydreaming
Definition: short term detachment form surroundings, during which a persons contact with reality is pertially substituted by a visionary fantasy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daydream
Trying to accomplish one thing and then lapsing into unrelated thoughts is not daydreaming ...that is mind wandering.
Ex: While I was researching i was trying to find information on the differenc between day draming and mind wandering and all of a sudden I just started thinking about what soccer practice was gonna be like tonight and getting to see all my friends again.
Benefits of Daydreaming?
● Can foster creativity and connections
● Helps us solve problems
● protect from immediate perils and keep us working toward long term goals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29tier.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
● Engender new ideas
● keeps us occupied - keeps mental health in tact.
Statistics say that people are daydreaming about 1⁄3 of the time. People can disengage for 2 minutes before realizing it. - not good
Tests of daydreaming
● People must read a book for 1⁄2 hour and researchers randomly ask whether or not they noticed ther mind wandering
● People must read a book and a machine tracks there eye movements (can see if your eyes slow and your really focusing on text or if your just skimming over, or just spacing out all together.
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychology-daydreaming/
DAYDREAMING + CONCIOUSNESS
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/psyc358/358-Lect_9.html http://dev5.mhhe.com/textflowdev/genhtml/0073532061/5.1.htm Good websites that I dont feeling like reading at the moment.
Why do we daydream?
Sometimes its a concious effort. We get bored and decide we want to think about something else. OR sometimes we daydream to relieve stresses of the imediate present.
Sometimes, however, it just happens.