--- title: Why Daydreaming Is So Good For You description: On average, we daydream nearly 47% of our waking hours. There's a good reason why, writes Monica C. Parker. canonical: https://time.com/6256541/why-daydreaming-is-good-for-you/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-02-21T12:00:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:25.205Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Daydreaming Is So Good For You og:description: On average, we daydream nearly 47% of our waking hours. There's a good reason why, writes Monica C. Parker. og:url: https://time.com/6256541/why-daydreaming-is-good-for-you/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012676d14181c1fa/698a3a79e6e84a3ed12afd8e/Day-Dreaming-Illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Day Dreaming-Illustration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Daydreaming Is So Good For You twitter:description: On average, we daydream nearly 47% of our waking hours. There's a good reason why, writes Monica C. Parker. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012676d14181c1fa/698a3a79e6e84a3ed12afd8e/Day-Dreaming-Illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Daydreaming Is So Good For You > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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James Cameron is known for directing record-setting blockbusters like "The Terminator," "Aliens," "Titanic," and "Avatar." 13 years after "Avatar" first premiered, Cameron is back with a sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water."_ by [Monica C. Parker](https://time.com/author/monica-c-parker/) ## Monica C. Parker Feb 21, 2023 12:00 PM UTC  surreal illustration of a woman with her head hidden by a tv projecting a sky surreal illustration of a woman with her head hidden by a tv projecting a sky Getty Images by [Monica C. Parker](https://time.com/author/monica-c-parker/) ## Monica C. Parker Feb 21, 2023 12:00 PM UTC Often derided and the topic of many a teacher’s report card comment daydreaming, or mind-wandering, is generally seen as an undesirable activity, especially among school-age children from whom the education system demands unrelenting focus. “Monica likes to daydream,” notes home to my Mom would read. “I do wonder what she is thinking about.” And yet, on average, we daydream nearly [47% of our waking hours](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1192439). If our brain spends nearly half of our awake time doing it, there is probably a good reason why. The term “daydreaming” was coined by Julien Varendonck in 1921 in his book [_The Psychology of Day-Dreams_](https://archive.org/details/psychologyofdayd00vareuoft) (with a foreword by Sigmund Freud, so sort-of a big deal). While Varendonck and Freud saw benefits to daydreaming, the past 20 years have yielded research that portrays daydreaming as “a cognitive control failure,” with some researchers out of Harvard recently [declaring](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CA%20human%20mind%20is%20a,comes%20at%20an%20emotional%20cost.%E2%80%9D) “a wandering mind is not a happy mind.” An exception to that opinion was one held by the late eminent psychologist Jerome Singer, who spent most of his professional life [researching daydreaming](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/conversation-on-daydreaming-with-jerome-l-singer/) (he preferred the term to “mind-wandering”). Singer identified three types of daydreaming, and while two can have negative impacts, one is quite beneficial. The first is “guilty dysphoric” or fear-of-the-future daydreaming, when we either think about the past, perseverating on a negative experience (like reliving a tough phone call over and over), or we [catastrophize the future](https://time.com/6253219/how-to-stop-catastrophic-thinking-sleep/) (like imagining failing spectacularly at an upcoming work presentation). Then there is “poor attentional control_,_” where a person struggles to focus on a particular thought or task, particularly troublesome for those with attention deficits. These two kinds of daydreaming [don’t have identifiable benefits](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235785870%5FThe%5FCosts%5Fand%5FBenefits%5Fof%5FMind-Wandering%5FA%5FReview). But the third type, “positive constructive daydreaming _(_PCD),” where we cast our mind forward and imagine future possibilities in a creative, positive way, can be quite beneficial. Helpful for planning and creativity, PCD is the bridge that links our internal observations with the forecasting required for future exploration. --- ### More from TIME --- **_Read More:_** [_How to Stop Catastrophic Thinking at Bedtime_](https://time.com/6253219/how-to-stop-catastrophic-thinking-sleep/) Philosophers have long stressed the importance of the type of inner reflection associated with PCD. Most of the enlightenment philosophers like Diderot, Locke, and Kant believed it was inward reflection, not external drivers, that empowered humanity to direct their own lives and lead themselves. In his 1690 work, [_An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,_](https://openpublishing.psu.edu/locke/bib/ch0e.html) John Locke ponders the term “consciousness,” describing it as the “perception of what passes in a man’s own mind.” For Locke, consciousness was “inseparable from thinking” and represented an integral awareness of the working of our own mind. To him, open observation of our internal consciousness paved the way for curious exploration of our external world. The part of our brain most often associated with daydreaming is called the “default mode network” (DMN). The term “default mode” refers to the part of our brain associated with our resting state and is responsible for our ability to reflect on our own consciousness and internal narrative. The DMN is an anti-correlational system active during contemplation like daydreaming and quiet when our working memory becomes engaged. The DMN is also something of a hub, with lots of connections running through it that impact a host of other activity patterns. But more interesting and somewhat mysterious, the DMN is responsible for much of [our abstract conceptual thought](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0800376105)—the introspective, self-referential kind that separates us from primates—and it recalls and constructs social scenarios to help us make meaning of our life. While the DMN can become disrupted during cognitive decline, such as dementia, PCD can actually thicken the cerebral cortex, or what’s known as our brain’s gray matter, the thinning of which is associated with the [cognitive decline of aging](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/ATEH-96EV-EXYX-2ADB?journalCode=icaa). While this link isn’t fully understood yet, we know that a well-functioning default mode network—where we cast our mind’s eye forward in time or reflect on our past experience (as in positive constructive daydreaming)—plays a pivotal role in our [healthy mental functioning](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidney-Kennedy/publication/311421273%5FThe%5FDefault%5FMode%5FNetwork%5Fin%5FHealthy%5FIndividuals%5FA%5FSystematic%5FReview%5Fand%5FMeta-Analysis/links/5f8f0289458515b7cf8f35ea/The-Default-Mode-Network-in-Healthy-Individuals-A-Systematic-Review-and-Meta-Analysis.pdf), in areas like memory consolidation, planning, and impulse control. Despite the benefits, we are conditioning daydreaming out of our kids—and in turn, out of our adult lives as well. Daydreaming is [strongly discouraged](https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-daydreaming-or-distracted-what-teachers-misunderstand-about-adhd/2018/05) in the majority of traditional learning environments, Most schools dwell so much on an assumption of high attentional demand that they’ve failed to balance the potential benefit of PCD’s [“constructive internal reflection.”](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26168472/) When we consider that daydreaming is a hallmark of ADD/ADHD, one has to question if neurodivergent children are being labeled as “underachievers” or “troublemakers” for simply engaging in an activity we all do with frequency, but one that doesn’t fit within the rigid strictures of the modern education system. Rather than demonizing daydreaming, we should protect it, nurture it, honor it—if not for the raft of physiological and psychological benefits, then for the potential societal benefits. People who daydream are more reflective, have a deeper sense of compassion, and show more moral decision-making. And ultimately, children who are more reflective, compassionate, and moral grow up to be the adults who build a more just society. ## Transcript [00:04] I think what people want in a movie theater is they want a kind [00:09] of high-impact or high intensity experience. [00:12] They want to feel like something happened to them. [00:15] Why? I always look for the greatest challenge to challenge [00:18] myself as an artist, but the greatest challenge I could put to [00:21] my characters. They think out of that, [00:23] kind of conflict and pressure comes interesting drama. [00:48] My role as a filmmaker is to create wondered could Beauty [00:52] to engage people with characters and their specific problems. [00:56] And not to let the messaging get in the way of a good Adventure. [01:00] Now, having said that, I think that the themes of Avatar are [01:04] much more relevant today, maybe that when the first film came [01:08] out because really what the two films are about and what they [01:10] have in common is there a about our relationship with nature? [01:13] That's really more of a plea for us to reconnect to Nature. [01:18] Understand it's on its mystery and and how that feeds us and [01:22] feeds, our souls, and how we can't live without it, [01:24] the children, everything they've ever known to fart. [01:28] This is our home. [01:29] I've always just follow the rule of give the audience, [01:34] what they think they want from their enjoyment of the first [01:38] film. Cuz the sequel only is merited when the first film was [01:42] a success which means the people like what they were seeing, [01:45] don't betray what they liked, but surprise them in ways that [01:51] ultimately are perceived as positive surprises, make the Terminator, [01:55] the good guy, you know, things like that. [01:57] Come with me if you want to live [02:02] we like to release our big films right before Christmas [02:06] because you have an open playing field and if the film hits [02:09] you can play into January and February for Pete, [02:12] viewing is a big part of your business model, [02:14] which it was on Titanic, even though we didn't know it and it [02:18] was consciously on Avatar and and the way water and part of that [02:22] does inform the filmmaking in terms of trying to create a visual [02:26] richness and fullness to them and an emotion ality, [02:29] the people want to re-experience [02:34] Okay, here starts the questions that start with. [02:36] Mis, I think most of us in the entertainment Community [02:40] are kind of ambivalent about the awards and such a part of the [02:44] DNA of Hollywood, The Glitz and the Glamour, [02:46] and the beauty, and the fashion and all that sort of thing. [02:50] And we are conditioned within our industry, [02:53] to see it as some sort of metric of success. [02:59] But on the other hand, fundamentally it's a bit absurd to try [03:03] to compare works of art that that are so desperate. [03:07] But here's what I could tell you from experience, [03:09] it's better to win the to not win, [03:12] and it's better to be nominated than to not be nominated. [03:15] No matter how much you want to intellectually argue the whole [03:20] thing away. [03:24] It's a question of Engagement, engaging of mine and Gage in the [03:27] eye and engaging the heart. [03:29] And I have to focus 100% [03:31] on the movie. [03:32] I make the decisions your stead of decisions that I think are [03:35] going to work for the audience. [03:37] Not for the critics are not for the reviewers, [03:40] and not for the awards and all that I have to, [03:42] I have to maintain my direct access of communication, [03:47] two people sitting in dark theaters all around the world, [03:49] that's my job. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6256541/why-daydreaming-is-good-for-you/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6256541/why-daydreaming-is-good-for-you/"},"headline":"Why Daydreaming Is So Good For You","datePublished":"2023-02-21T12:00:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:25.205Z","description":"On average, we daydream nearly 47% of our waking hours. There's a good reason why, writes Monica C. 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