Day Dreaming

CONSCIOUSNESS
An Altered State of Consciousness

The conscious mind is what allows individuals to become associated with the closest form of reality that they can perceive. To achieve a conscious state, the individual should be aware and responsive to their immediate environment as well as their own unique thoughts, feelings, and actions. However, while it may go unnoticed and seem completely effortless, people are continually altering their states consciousness. For instance, when people become bored or uninterested in their current activities, they have the capability to enter a private world in their mind in which they can escape the realities of true and absolute consciousness.

“Our minds may wander during boring tasks because daydreaming is actually the brain’s normal state, rather than a pointless distraction, according to a new U.S. study” (Jones, 2007).
According to Malia Mason, a postdoctoral researcher of neuro cognition at Harvard University, psychologists have assumed that individuals concentrate most of their time towards goal-oriented thoughts and that periodically they will have spouts of extraneous thoughts. Conversely, it could be that individuals spend most of their time engaging in less productive thoughts and that they will occasionally have some goal-oriented thoughts and ideas.

Furthermore, Mason describes daydreaming 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” (Jones, 2007). Daydreaming alters the consciousness because it is a type of imagination in which the mind forms mental images of scenarios, possibly creating circumstances that the daydreamer has never experienced before. The brain is so fascinating because it has this wide range of abilities to produce effects that include voices and feelings in one’s very own daydream.
Although this may seem as if daydreaming is just a gratifying distraction of desirable fantasies, it is actually very beneficial in a variety of ways.

“Psychologists estimate that one-third to one-half of a person’s thoughts while awake are daydreams, although a single daydream rarely last more than a few minutes” (Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2001). Nevertheless, the time spent on daydreaming can have helpful and advantageous uses and outcomes such as relaxation, maintaining relationships, becoming more productive and accomplishing goals, inducing creativity, and of course, overcoming boredom.
When one’s head is in the clouds and their mind begins to wander, eventually they will begin to feel peaceful and relaxed. Consequently they may be in a better mood, have a clearer mind, and feel refreshed, therefore allowing them to achieve their priorities. Furthermore, it is even possible that if one daydreams about their goals and desired successes, they will in turn work harder and put forth the effort to make those dreams come true. “The beauty of daydreams is that nothing is impossible” (Frank, 2005-2010).

Another positive characteristic of having daydreams usually allows couples to maintain healthy relationships. According to James Honeycutt, PhD, “happy couples tend to think about one another when they’re apart, which has the effect of psychologically maintaining the relationship.” He goes on to say that “we daydream about the people we love and we imagine sharing good news with them, along with our successes and failures” (Frank, 2005-2010). Also, daydreaming provides the ability for the mind to stay active. “People with monotonous jobs, like factory workers and security guards, often use daydreaming to keep their minds stimulated and to get them through the day” (Frank, 2005-2010).
According to U.S. researchers, “daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind, and certain brain regions are devoted to it” (msnbc, 2007). In fact, Malia Mason says that there is this network of regions in the brain that are activated as long as people are not engaged in any focused activities. “Neurologists and psychologists have debated what goes on when people are not specifically thinking about or doing something, and there had been general agreement that the mind does not simply go blank” (msnbc, 2007). In order to study what exactly takes place in the brain and what parts are activated while daydreaming, a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner (fMRI) may be utilized. This can be done while communicating with the subject being imaged so as to analyze the activity simultaneously.
Research has conclusively proved that during daydreaming, many areas in the brain experience a significant rise in activity as well as gaining an increase in the ability to solve complex problems. “The brain’s “default network” - which is linked to easy, routine mental activity and includes the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), the posterior cingulate cortex and the temporoparietal junction - was the only part of the brain thought to be active when our minds wander” (Physorg, 2009). Nevertheless, it was also found that “the brain’s “executive network” - associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex - also becomes activated when we daydream” (Physorg, 2009).

After performing a study to determine why brains are inclined to daydream, researchers eventually concluded that “although the thoughts the mind produces when wandering are at times useful, such instances do not prove that the mind wanders because these thoughts are adaptive; on the contrary the mind may wander simply because it can” (msnbc, 2007).

Daydreaming may possibly be an ultimate source of multi-tasking. The brain has an amazing capacity to recognize how much attention is essentially available and distribute it to potentially more important thoughts by simply altering one’s consciousness in the form of everyone’s own unique ability to daydream.

References * Encyclopedia of Psychology. (2001, April 6). Daydreaming. Findarticles.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0000/ai_2699000083 * Frank, Christina. (2005-2010). Why Does Daydreaming Get Such a Bad Rap? Webmd.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/why-doesdaydreaming-get-such-bad-rap

* Jones, Hilary. (2007, January 19). Daydreaming Improves Thinking. Cosmosmagazine.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/980/daydreaming-improves-thinking?page=3 * MSNBC. (2007, January 19). Caught Daydreaming? Blame Brain’s Settings. Msnbc.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16709755/

* Physorg. (2009, May 11). Brain’s Problem-solving Function at Work When We Daydream. Physorg.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.physorg.com/news161280990.html

References: * Encyclopedia of Psychology. (2001, April 6). Daydreaming. Findarticles.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0000/ai_2699000083 * Frank, Christina. (2005-2010). Why Does Daydreaming Get Such a Bad Rap? Webmd.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/why-doesdaydreaming-get-such-bad-rap * Jones, Hilary. (2007, January 19). Daydreaming Improves Thinking. Cosmosmagazine.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/980/daydreaming-improves-thinking?page=3 * MSNBC. (2007, January 19). Caught Daydreaming? Blame Brain’s Settings. Msnbc.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16709755/ * Physorg. (2009, May 11). Brain’s Problem-solving Function at Work When We Daydream. Physorg.com. Retrieved February 26, 2010 from http://www.physorg.com/news161280990.html