Lecture on Daydreaming and Maladaptive Daydreaming

Introduction to Daydreaming

• Speaker: Alex Lathbridge from CrowdScience, BBC World Service
• Focus: Exploring the world of daydreams, including a listener's inquiry and expert insights.

Personal Accounts

Sayma's Experience

• Maladaptive Daydreamer: Daydreams from 5 minutes to 5 hours.
• Daily Impact: Can spend 20 hours daydreaming, started at age 11.
• Emotional Impact: Feels like a different world, ashamed and worried about family reactions.

Elkin's Inquiry

• Past Experience: Stuck thinking about past relationships.
• Current Daydreaming: Reduced to 30% of time, previously was 90%.
• Question: Why does he daydream so much and how to reduce it?

Expert Insights

Dr. Guilia Poerio

• Role: Lecturer in Psychology, Sussex University
• Definition of Daydreaming:
  • Task-unrelated thought.
  • Stimulus-independent thought.
• Typical Daydreaming: Normal to mind wander 30-50% of the time.

Experiment with Alex

• Method: App notification to log thoughts.
• Findings: Mind wandering 19% of the time, prospective bias (thinking of the future).

Dr. Kalina Christoff

• Role: Psychology Professor, University of British Columbia
• Brain Activity: Default network activation when daydreaming, involves memory and future imagination.
• Intrusiveness of Thoughts: Thoughts form in hippocampus, spread to become conscious over three seconds.

Maladaptive Daydreaming

Taylor Dickinson

• Identity: Also known as Femini on TikTok.
• Experience: Compares daydreaming to addiction; impacts daily life and relationships.
• Fantasy World: Involves scenarios like defending a character from TV show "Hannibal."

Expert Eli Somer

• Role: Clinical Psychology Professor, University of Haifa
• Description: Maladaptive daydreaming linked with anxiety, depression.
• Characteristics: Highly vivid fantasies, potentially addictive behavior.
• Prevalence: Rough estimates suggest it affects 2.5% of some populations.

Coping and Reducing Daydreaming

Dr. Sophie Forster

• Role: Researcher on attention, Sussex University
• Study: Attention experiment to avoid distraction.
• Findings: Engaging tasks with sensory demand can help reduce mind wandering.
• Advice: Activities like embroidery or complex video games can help focus attention.

Conclusion

• Daydreaming Purpose: A tool for reflecting on past and preparing for future.
• Caution: Awareness of daydreaming levels; for some, it can become maladaptive.
• Final Thought: Consider the formation of thoughts before they dominate your mind.