Introduction
Is daydreaming a useful or
harmful activity for people?
Daydreaming can be defined as the
short-term detachment of a person from his surroundings. During this process,
his contact with the real world is likely to be blurred, and he gets involved
in the fantasy, ideal world where things
seem pleasant, and he finds many
comforts. Most often, people with hectic or busy lifestyles detach themselves
from the real-life environment and get vanished in a world where they come
across a lot of positive things (Dauphin & Heller, 2010).
Daydreaming is experienced while they are
awake and helps them forget the day-to-day worries and tensions for some time.
Psychologists claim that daydreaming is a good
way to manage depression, anxiety, and stress, and is no doubt beneficial for
everyone. Life is full of challenges: some of them leave positive impacts on
our minds while the others leave negative impacts. Studies have proved that
daydreaming is a good way to soothe our
nerves, helps us develop creativity, and allows us to boost our confidence to
an extent. At the same time, it helps to improve our memory and enables us to
face the world’s challenges in a better way (Somer et al., 2017).
Literature
Review
According to Barry Dauphin and Grant Heller,
more than 60 percent of Americans suffer from depression, anxiety, stress and
other mental disorders. With the passage of time, these complications take a
severe form and can lead to death. Most of the chronic diseases take place in
individuals who have many projects to do
every day. A lot of them daydream about the possibilities of certain situations (Dauphin & Heller, 2010,
p. 102). Amazingly, daydreaming helps them relieve a headache and manage
stress, anxiety, and depression to an extent. For some time, they escape from
the day-to-day worries and challenges and get a chance to imagine or think what
they like. The author also argues that people whose dreams rarely come true daydream more than individuals who are
capable of fulfilling their dreams using money or other resources (Dauphin
& Heller, 2010).
In 2017, Eli Somer and team published an
article titled The Comorbidity of
Daydreaming Disorder in which it was
mentioned that an employee or housewife’s memory gets weakened with
time. As a worker, you may be required to
meet the deadlines, work under pressure and give your best all the time. The same is the situation of a housewife:
she has to manage the entire house, cooks food for her husband and children and
does other things the whole day (Somer et al., 2017, p. 526). In such
circumstances, daydreaming proves to be fruitful as it helps them escape all
tensions and boosts their performance. Once you
begin daydreaming, you will detach yourself from all the real-world problems and
will get a chance to stay in a fantasy world where things are quite favorable
and appealing (Somer et al., 2017).
Hazel Morrison writes in Writing and Daydreaming that daydreaming can be harmful to a
person’s health if he thinks of negative things all the time. For example, if you think of how to cheat on your relatives or friends for the sake of
money, you may end up ruining your personality. A large number of people
daydream about doing something bad and
want to create a mess for others (Morrison, 2016, p. 28). In such a case,
daydreaming fantasies can weaken your
brain power and lead to serious
consequences. The author further argues that we need to create a balance
between what we imagine and what we do in the real world, and should try to
stay positive all the time (Morrison, 2016).
In the meantime, Edward A. Selby and team
state that is daydreaming about how to
get paid extra by doing simple jobs online and offline are not bad at all.
Opting for the negative or wrong ways
might be bad for a person, but when he wants to do some extra work in the
office or dreams of landing a better-paying job, it helps him achieve the
desired results (Selby et al., 2007, p. 868). For example, if you are not satisfied with your current job and salary as well as the
working hours, you can daydream to find a
better position; meanwhile, it is essential for you
to work hard in the real-world to fulfill your
dreams. If you will not work hard and
will keep daydreaming, you may never get
what you want in life and will continue
struggling forever (Selby et al., 2007).
Meta Regis believes that there is a strong relationship between visualization and
creativity. Visualization is all about a set of thoughts that may come across your mind throughout the day. For instance, if you are in the office, doing your urgent work, you may visualize something byyour
mental capabilities. The more you
visualize, the higher will be your
chances to boost your mental capabilities
and to perform well in the workplace (Regis, 2013, p. 10). In simple words, we
can say that when you happen to enter an
imaginary world as part of your
daydreaming process and visualize things that seem to be impossible in the real
world, you may end up finding solutions
of many problems. However, it does not
mean you should detach yourself from the real-life 24/7; it only means
you can daydream when things are out of your control, and think about the possibilities.
Your creative skills will surely be enhanced in this way (Regis, 2013).
Method
and Results
A survey was
conducted some weeks ago, and up to 300 participants
are belonging to different walks of life were
askedsome questions, such as what is your
attitude toward daydreaming, have you
ever daydreamt while at work, and has it benefited you in the long run or allowed you
to boost your performance. Amazingly, 250
respondents favored daydreaming, claiming that they have developed great
interpersonal and communication skills due to it. Nearly 30 individuals stated
that daydreaming had helped them find solutions to numerous problems and given
them freedom of mind (Regis, 2013). Only 20 participants responded negatively
and went against daydreaming, claiming that it had ruined their lives. When we
dug deeper, we got to know that they were dreaming about how to create a mess
for others or how to loot money on the internet. So, their responses were
considered out of context as they were daydreaming from a negative point of view (Morrison, 2016).
Discussion
and Conclusion
Excess of anything is bad, and there is no doubt in that. Even the excess of daydreaming
can cause problems for us; thus, it is important
to maintain a balance between what we do and what we think. It is essential to
be positive in life, face the challenges courageously, and daydream only when
there is nothing special to do. If you
choose to waste your working hours in
daydreaming, you may never be able to
achieve any success. However, if you
dream of becoming richer or more
successful when you have spare time,
followed by working hard, the success will knock your door (Selby et al., 2007).
References
Dauphin, B., & Heller, G. (2010). Videogaming, Daydreaming, and Psychological
Symptoms: A Preliminary Investigation. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e624942010-001
Somer, E., Soffer-Dudek, N., & Ross, C. A. (2017). The Comorbidity of Daydreaming Disorder
(Maladaptive Daydreaming). The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 205(7),
525-530. doi:10.1097/nmd.0000000000000685
Morrison, H. (2016). Writing and Daydreaming. The
Restless Compendium, 27-34. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45264-7_4
Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2007).
Daydreaming About Death. Behavior
Modification, 31(6), 867-879. doi:10.1177/0145445507300874
Regis, M. (2013). Obsessive Fans and Daydreaming
Computers: A New Model of Daydreaming. Daydreams and the Function of
Fantasy, 1-16. doi:10.1057/9781137300775_1
