Temporary escape from daily reality by forming mental pictures.
In daydreams—exercises of imagination—the person forms a mental image of a past experience or of a situation that he or she has never actually experienced. Some psychologists use the acronym TUIT (Task-Unrelated Images and Thoughts) to describe episodes of daydreaming. A daydream may be triggered by a situation, a memory, or a sensory input (sight, taste, smell, sound, touch).
Psychologists estimate that one-third to one-half of a person's thoughts while awake are daydreams, although a single daydream rarely lasts more than a few minutes. Daydreaming is generally not harmful, unless the daydreaming episodes interfere with activities of daily living. When the day dreamer's daily routine is disrupted—a student does not hear the teacher assigning homework; for example, he or she may be using daydreams as a defense mechanism. In extreme situations, the daydreamer begins to confuse mental images with reality, and the daydream is referred to as a hallucination.
Daydreaming first occurs for most people during childhood, sometime before age three. Daydreaming patterns established in childhood often carry into adolescence and adulthood. Children who have positive, happy daydreams generally continue these types of mental images into adulthood; these daydreamers are most likely to benefit from the positive aspects of mental imagery. On the other hand, children whose daydreams are negative, scary, or visualize disasters establish a pattern of anxiety that will carry over into adulthood as well.
A child may talk or act out the scenario envisioned during his or her daydreams. Many young children include an imaginary playmate in the mental images of daydreaming. After around 10, however, the process of internalizing daydreaming begins; these older children and adolescents create private mental images, and are less likely to talk or physically participate in their daydreams. Researchers have examined changes in daydreaming habits over time among intellectually gifted children and adolescents. Findings suggest that content of daydreams may change over time, but frequency of daydreaming was fairly stable, diminishing somewhat during adolescence.
Athletes, musicians, and other performers use a form of daydreaming known as visualization. As the individual prepares for a competition or performance, he or she forms a mental picture of him- or herself executing and completing the task with the desired successful outcome.
Henderson, Bruce B., et al. "Individual Differences in IQ, Daydreaming and Moral Reasoning in Gifted and Average Adolescents," International Journal of Behavioral Development, vol. 7, June 1984, pp. 215-30.
Hogan, John, "Daydreaming: Experiments Reveal Links Between Memory and Sleep," Scientific American, October 1994, pp. 32+.
Seligson, Susan V., "What Your Daydreams Really Mean," Redbook, July 1995, pp. 51.
Gold, Steven R. and Bruce B. Henderson, "Daydreaming and Curiosity: Stability and Change in Gifted Children and Adolescents," Adolescence, vol. 25, Fall 1990, pp. 701-08.