Just as dreaming during sleep means seeing some figures or images of things, persons, or ideas as mere reflections of what you have in mind. The question of what is the meaning of day dreaming should bother your mind as a quest in itself to recognize the difference between the regular dream and daydream.
Well, the difference between the two is not far-fetched because they could mean the same thing, except for the fact that dreaming, that is seeing things while you sleep, has spiritual attachments to its meaning and its realization in the real world. Daydreaming, if carefully recognized, is only like figments of imagination which occur when you are not sleeping unlike dreams.
What is the Meaning of Day Dreaming
The question of what is the meaning of day dreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current, external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction. Psychologically, daydreams are the most common form of altered consciousness. It is a level of our alertness to our human desires and needs.
This phenomenon is common in people’s daily life shown by a large-scale study in which participants spend 47% of their waking time on average on daydreaming. There are many types of daydreams, and there is no consistent definition among psychologists. However, the characteristic that is common to all forms of daydreaming meets the criteria for mild dissociation.
Functions of Day Dreaming
Day dreaming plays many roles in the society, plus the fact that it promises a lot of benefits to the human life.
- Daydreaming can also be used to imagine social situations. Humans are naturally oriented to be social in behavior and actively seek the approval and company of others. Social daydreaming is imagining past social occurrences and future events and conversations.
- Daydreaming relieves one from boredom. When people are doing boring tasks, daydreaming allows their thoughts to detach from current external tasks to relieve boredom. At the same time, this temporary detachment will not stop external activities completely when these activities are necessary.
- Daydreaming can also be used to imagine social situations. Humans are naturally oriented to be social in behavior and actively seek the approval and company of others. Social daydreaming is imagining past social occurrences and future events and conversations.
- Daydreaming can cause the perception that time moves more quickly. With day dreaming you entertain the mind and while away time.
- Daydreaming helps to keep people’s behaviors relatively optimal when there are multiple target problems at the same time. When people have many goals, daydreaming provides an opportunity for people to switch among different streams of information and thoughts.
Negative Side of Day Dreaming
In addition to what is the meaning of day dreaming, we must look through one way in which daydreaming can be harmful to your way of life is if you do it too much, and if you do this, it does most of these things below:
- You lose focus and forget important information.
- Day dreaming can also be harmful to your mental health if you are constantly having negative thoughts.
- It can interfere with your productivity and cause you to either slow down or stop completely for a matter of minutes.
- It can be harmful to your health if you allow it to reduce your concentration.
