Here’s Why Day Dreaming Can be Actually Good for Your Mental Health!

Vacations can help you take a break from your regular life and relax and rejuvenate you. But, taking a break and flying off to a far-off destination is not always possible. We are so obsessed with our work that sometimes it takes a toll on our mental and physical health.

We may get a periodic off and take off to an exotic locale once in a while, but more often than not, it is not enough. So, how about making your reality into a dreamy vacation, quite literally. We are talking about a trip to la-la land. Yes, we are talking about daydreaming. Wishful thinking or imagination is a mini-vacation that isn’t all nonsense. It can make you feel fresh and rejuvenated, and what’s more, it has more scientific mental health benefits than you ever thought possible.

Enhances Brain Performance

Dr. Muireann Irish (Neuroscientist) asserts that daydreaming is hard work and has several important functions. Your capability of remembering the past and thinking about the future involves a very complex way of thinking. Humans are the only species that can boast of this amazing quality.

The way you daydream and think is an effect of your brain’s physical structure, which, in turn, is transforms the response to new information and changes it into new neural pathways owing to neuroplasticity! This heavy-duty sounding word means the ability of neural networks in the brain to transform through the process of growth and reorganization.

Activates Different Regions of the Brain

There are two segments of your brain, one that makes all the decisions and hogs the analytic limelight, and the other is the relatable, empathetic part. When you focus on one aspect, you may not focus on the other.

Daydreaming ensures an organic, natural, and cyclical movement between the opposite two parts of your brain. And turning one part of it on and turning the other on and off as it daydreams and imagines.

Boosts Creative

If you are a daydreamer, chances are you may also be more creative. In this regard, there are several instances that celebrities, like Woody Allen and JK Rowling, often admit that they often hit the creative high because of their daydreaming prowess.

While daydreaming, you focus on different aspects of your memory and it activates your brain. And from there, it collects tiny bits of information that it otherwise may not be able to collect. Some of these connections may make you go on a creative journey, and your mind may be brimming with many creative ideas.

Fosters Empathetic

Like you may be thinking of the past or think about the future, your thinking prowess or your ability to think about someone else’s perspective is unique to humans. A person may spend half of their wakeful hours daydreaming.

If you can also spend some time contemplating what the other person may be thinking or feeling, it could change how you interact with people and open a new channel of discussion and communication.

Improves Interpersonal Relationships

Research says that daydreaming can actually make you get closer to your loved ones. This is an approach-oriented social kind that involves loved ones with whom you may have emotional ties.

So, if you daydream more, you can feel happier, feel more love, and feel more connected with the said person. So, instead of avoiding, you may attain something positive by daydreaming.

Improves Working Memory

Working memory is your brain’s capacity to store more and recall information even when your brain is clouded with distractions.

Recent research at the University of Wisconsin and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science found out that there has been a great correlation between working memory and daydreaming! So the more you daydream, the more your working memory increases.

Improves Performance

A Cornell study revealed promising benefits of daydreaming. So, when you daydream, you have greater chances of reporting improved performance. When you daydream, there is a positive, simultaneous effect on your task performance. Even studies prove that your lapses of distraction when you were a kid make you a more creative person as a kid or later as an adult.

So, do not dismiss daydreaming as mere lapses of concentration. They may be a more positive effect on your mind than you may give it credit for. So, lean back and start dreaming your way to success!