Is Daydreaming About Your Future Harmful?

Everyone has things they want in life, dreams they want to achieve. For example, when I grow up, I want to share a mansion with my friends. We would all have different rooms and each room would be decorated according to the person's aesthetic. I know I’ll have to worry about the money and the location, but I can worry about that when I’m older.

People can collectively agree that having dreams is an amazing thing. It can lead to people working hard and achieving them. Because when people have a goal in mind, they work with a renewed sense of passion and are therefore more productive. However, we often branch off from having goals and dreams to daydreaming. Daydreaming can be positive or negative depending on how you use your daydreaming time.

96% of adults admit to daydreaming at least once a day and spend around 16% a day daydreaming. Many people think daydreaming is harmful, but whether they like it or not, it’s very common.

Daydreaming can include many different topics: how should I get my mom to let me go to this concert, or, I wonder if I could do this math problem this way instead of that, and many more random thoughts. In this way, daydreaming boosts your problem-solving skills and creativity. Plus, those who reported more frequent daydreaming scored higher on intellectual and creative ability tests and had more efficient brain systems when measured by MRI.

It can help you achieve your goals as well. If you can daydream about being successful at a certain task or even in a certain position in life, you are more likely to reach your goals. Visualization is often an important factor in the success of performers and athletes, and everyday people use this strategy as well.

Others might choose to use daydreaming as a means to manage conflict and is often referred to as “organized daydreaming.” It involves visualization of different ways to deal with existing conflicts or ones that may arise; using this method helps review specific situations in your head so you can be prepared for a variety of occurrences. By using organized daydreaming, you can visualize several different possible scenarios so you can be better prepared in case it happens. Some people might also refer to it as overthinking, but “organized daydreaming” sounds fancier, so I’m going with that.

But daydreaming too much also has a side effect. There is a time where daydreaming can be useful and productive, but other times it can cause you to lose focus and forget important information. If you are trying to complete an important task, daydreaming can interfere with your productivity and cause you to either slow down or stop completely for a matter of minutes. An example could be thinking about a sports game for the majority of time while taking a math test. If you do that, you’re very likely to fail unless you work like the Flash.

Daydreaming can also be harmful to your mental health if you are constantly having negative thoughts. While most people daydream about fantasies and other desirable events, others might be daydreaming about doing something harmful to themselves or others. Sometimes, these types of daydreaming fantasies can be rather involved with a great deal of detail. It is almost like a plan rather than a fantasy. When it involves something that could cause harm, daydreaming is less beneficial.

Another type of negative daydreaming is maladaptive daydreaming, when a person has such intense and common experience in daydreams that it can be distracting enough to make them lose focus in their real life. It can also be known as a daydreaming disorder. Many findings also report that well-known mechanisms leading to depression, such as low self-esteem and hopelessness, are consistently associated with daydreaming and are likely to bring out a negative mood in individuals.

While daydreaming is a way people can let their minds create and imagine, there is also a dark side to it that you need to watch out for. Try to visualize your goals but be careful to not disconnect from your life.