By India McCarty
Could daydreaming actually be good for you? These experts say yes — and warn against smartphones’ impact on the practice.
“Daydreaming seems to be one route to having that kind of more meaningful, fuller life,” Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Florida, told the Washington Post. “It might not be as easy as pulling out your cellphone, but there’s sort of a deeper meaning to it.”
She called smartphones “cognitive junk food” that, while good for a short-lived dopamine boost, don’t do anything for our “higher-order thinking.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiAQlDBJ88U
Related: Why Rising Boredom Levels in Teens Might Be a Good Thing
There have been many studies on the impacts boredom can have on our brains. For example, a 2022 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that we often underestimate just how enjoyable being bored can be.
“People tend to overestimate the boredom and underestimate enjoyment,” Kou Murayama, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Tübingen in Germany and one of the study’s researchers, explained.
He added that daydreaming and sitting with our thoughts improves our ability to reflect on past events, as well as empathize with others.
Daydreaming can even help you feel closer to people in your life; a 2016 study discovered that daydreaming about interactions with loved ones can make you feel closer to that person.
“Social daydreamers showed significantly increased feelings of connection, love and belonging compared to non-social daydreamers and control participants,” the study noted. “These findings demonstrate that through imagination, social daydreaming can replenish connectedness providing a potential strategy for enhancing socio-emotional well-being.”
Giulia Poerio, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex in Britain, pointed out that daydreaming can also help us work on problem-solving skills.
“It can be really helpful, especially if you are dealing with a problem or you’re working on something that’s quite complex,” she explained. “Instead of trying to really focus on a problem or active problem-solving, you can just decide to let things percolate.”
After conducting his research, Murayama shared that he has made a conscious effort to stop taking his phone out when he needs to kill time.
“It’s actually quite refreshing,” he said. “I feel a kind of ownership of my thoughts when I entertain myself.”
So, next time you’re waiting in line somewhere, resist the urge to pull out your smartphone and take some time to be bored; your brain will thank you!
Read Next: Is Doomscrolling Making You More Bored?
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