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By Emilia Irimia
Daydreaming refers to the occurrence of spontaneous thoughts unrelated to one's current situation [1]. Half of our thoughts are daydreams, an escape from the tasks at hand [2]. While it
may seem frustrating not being able to focus, the link between daydreaming and creativity has proven to be a lucrative research topic for scientists.
Both creativity and daydreaming are spontaneous processes [3], though benefitting from metacognitive awareness [4] - while I'm writing this article, my mind spontaneously wanders to what I'm going to wear tomorrow while going out with my friends. This is a thought I recognize
is foreign to the task that should have my undeterred attention, though simultaneously familiar [4]. This is the generation process, the intermediary between unintentional and deliberate phases
of both creativity and daydreaming.
We scour our memory systems to recognize remote patterns and generate ideas [5]. Psychologists suggest that not only do these processes operate on a similar neural basis, but they may function
consequently, additionally [6]. The images our visual cortex and hippocampus manage to simulate during daydreams act as catalysts for creative notions. This concept particularly ties together creativity and daydreaming, due to the inability to comprehend certain topics when we
perceive them consciously [7]. You refuse to think about the breakup you just went through, but when Taylor Swift pops up in your playlist your mind subconsciously drifts to that heavy-hearted moment. Through this foggy little window into self-awareness, you get to acknowledge your
feelings and get closure. Maybe your brain scrounges up the idea of writing his name in a burn book or crossing out his face in that annoying framed picture sitting on your nightstand (as your amygdala goes into overdrive, sensing separation distress). Either way, seeing as your limbic
system had been previously refusing to recognize this potential threat to attachment, daydreaming is the moment where we don't stop to process our thoughts , which allows you to have your Eureka moment of singleness (sorry!).
This is the positive repercussion of daydreaming while conscious (?) : a break from divergent thinking that facilitates the performance of a creative task. Unfortunately, the brain tends to be indecisive (or perhaps it's a defense mechanism to ward off these pushy researchers), so we have to concede the negative correlation as well.
Daydreaming is also the conclusion of processing mental and environmental cues [8]. This is where the top-down executive process discerns unrelated stimuli from those relevantly distracting, which defines daydreaming as a failure of executive control.
To generate ideas, creativity requires controlled and focused thought [9]. Here we make the distinction between high and low daydreaming (as relevant to frequency). The former has proven
analogous to decreased efficiency in maintaining attention, in comparison with the latter [10]. A study from 2015 put this notion to the test. The researchers found lower originality and fluency scores when observing the high daydreaming groups, as opposed to the ones who experienced divergence less during the proposed task. They also found that throughout the length of the experiment, these already deficient scores gradually decreased.
Therefore, daydreaming proves that it can be detrimental to efficient creative processes.
While studying this complex relationship, we thus have to acquiesce to the 3 types of daydreaming, as each one of them has been discerned differently in concern to their respective relationships with creativity.
Positive constructive daydreaming (curiosity, vivid imagery) has been positively linked to openness to experience, an integral trait of creativity [11]. There are no studies to reflect on the effects guilty-dysphoric daydreaming or poor attentional control has on individuals' creative abilities. However, the latter has been theorized as having a negative association with creativity, as found in a study comparing attentional outputs of broad focus and narrow focus tasks [12].
The interaction between the two remains, in the end, abstruse. Biased reporting (though usually a faulty habit of research publishing) may aid future research in ascertaining the positive correlation, as this is what's relevant to observing the experience of a wandering mind, persevering in human cognition.
Since daydreaming is inherently unremitting and organic, we find that acknowledging the negative implications it has on creativity is useless progressively.
Consequently, daydreaming is a natural process. So next time someone snaps their fingers in your face to snap you out of your reverie, remind them you're only perpetuating creation (they might call you crazy, but isn't that just part of being human too?)!
References
1. Singer, J. L. (1975). The inner world of daydreaming. New York, NY: Harper Row.,
Singer, J. L. , & Schonbar, R. A. (1961). Correlates of daydreaming—A dimension of
self‐awareness. Journal of Consulting Psychology, Smallwood, J. , & Schooler, J. W.
(2006). The restless mind. Psychological Bulletin
2. Christoff, K. , Gordon, A. M. , Smallwood, J. , Smith, R. , & Schooler, J. W. (2009).
Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system
contributions to mind wandering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States of America
3. Fox, K. C. R. , & Beaty, R. E. (2019). Mind‐wandering as creative thinking: Neural,
psychological, and theoretical considerations. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
4. Smallwood, J. , & Schooler, J. W. (2006). The restless mind. Psychological Bulletin
5. Christensen, A. P. , Kenett, Y. N. , Cotter, K. N. , Beaty, R. E. , & Silvia, P. J. (2018).
Remotely close associations: Openness to experience and semantic memory structure.
European Journal of Personality
6. Shepard, R. N. (1978). The mental image. American Psychologist
7. Nguyen, N.D., Lutas, A., Amsalem, O. et al. Cortical reactivations predict future sensory
responses. Nature
8. Mcvay, J. C. , & Kane, M. J. (2010). Does mind wandering reflect executive function or
executive failure? Comment on Smallwood and Schooler (2006) and Watkins (2008).
Psychological Bulletin
9. Sun J, He L, Chen Q, Yang W, Wei D, Qiu J. The bright side and dark side of
daydreaming predict creativity together through brain functional connectivity. Hum Brain
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10. Hao, N. , Wu, M. X. , Runco, M. A. , & Pina, J. (2015). More mind wandering, fewer
original ideas: Be not distracted during creative idea generation. Acta Psychologica
11. Zhiyan, T. , & Jerome, L. S. (1997). Daydreaming styles, emotionality and the big five
personality dimensions. Imagination, Cognition and Personality
12. Wegbreit, E. , Suzuki, S. , Grabowecky, M. , Kounios, J. , & Beeman, M. (2012). Visual
attention modulates insight versus analytic solving of verbal problems. The Journal of
Problem Solving
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