At any bus stop or while waiting in line, most people will have their heads down looking at their phones. Recent research found that many people check their phones at least 50 times per day. But studies suggest that if you resist that urge and let your mind wander instead, there could be some serious benefits. Giving yourself time to daydream seems to be good for your well-being, for problem-solving and maybe even for your relationships.
Daydreaming has been a subject of scientific research for decades. We spend as much as half our time awake daydreaming or listening to our own thoughts — but it isn’t always a pleasant experience. In one famous study, participants preferred to get an electric shock rather than sit quietly with their own thoughts. This is one explanation for why so many people reflexively reach for their phones during any moment of downtime.
“Daydreaming seems to be one route to having that kind of more meaningful, fuller life,” said Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Florida. “It might not be as easy as pulling out your cellphone, but there’s sort of a deeper meaning to it.”
She compared idly scrolling on a phone to “cognitive junk food” — meaning it might feel good in the moment, but it doesn’t really do much for us. “So much of what we’ve accomplished as humans has come from higher-order thinking,” Westgate said.
So the next time you have a few minutes to spare, here are three reasons to leave your phone in your pocket and let your mind wander instead.
1. You will probably enjoy it more than you think
Our fear of boredom is well documented. And yet, in a 2022 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers found that people consistently underestimated how much they would enjoy just thinking.
“It’s the easiest study I’ve ever conducted because we didn’t need anything,” said one of the researchers, Kou Murayama, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Tübingen in Germany. They asked participants to make a prediction about how they would feel sitting alone in a room for 20 minutes with nothing to do. Afterward, they were asked how it went.
“People tend to overestimate the boredom and underestimate enjoyment,” Murayama said. This held true across six experiments with a total of 259 participants, whether they were put in a bare conference room or a small, dark space with no visual stimulation at all.
Murayama said that the ability to go elsewhere in our minds is what makes us human. It helps us learn by imagining scenarios we haven’t experienced yet, or reflecting on things that have happened in the past. And it helps us empathize with each other because we can imagine how other people might feel.
Of course, it matters what you think about. If you find yourself revisiting or ruminating over unpleasant memories while daydreaming, Westgate suggests making a list of the meaningful, positive things you would rather think about. This is called “positive constructive daydreaming,” and it can help with problem-solving and boost creativity.
“Giving people a little bit of scaffolding to get there seems to make it easier,” Westgate said.
2. Daydreaming may help you solve problems
One of the most important reasons our minds wander is that this kind of free-association thinking is effective for problem-solving — often more so than sitting down with the intention of figuring out a solution.
“People do this a lot when they’re driving,” Westgate said. “Showering, putting on makeup, all these kinds of things where you’re doing something in the external world, but it’s sort of automatic and your thoughts are free to wander.”
Research suggests people are more likely to solve a problem after a period of mind-wandering, even if they weren’t consciously thinking about the issue at all — and Westgate has found in her own research that this is a kind of daydreaming people particularly enjoy.
“It can be really helpful, especially if you are dealing with a problem or you’re working on something that’s quite complex,” said Giulia Poerio, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex in Britain. Neuroscience research has shown that even when we think we’re sitting there doing nothing, the brain is working, and different brain regions are still active while in this “default” mode, Murayama explained.
You can deliberately get there by doing a simple activity, like working on a puzzle or going for a walk.
“Instead of trying to really focus on a problem or active problem-solving, you can just decide to let things percolate,” Poerio said.
3. Daydreaming may make you feel closer to people
Poerio has devoted much of her research to exploring daydreaming and imagination, and has found surprising social and emotional benefits.
In one 2016 study, participants were asked to imagine either a pleasant interaction with a loved one or another positive but nonsocial event, like getting a good grade. The people who imagined time with a loved one felt more connected to that person.
“I didn’t necessarily expect that to be the case,” Poerio said. “We basically showed that there’s an emotion regulatory function of imagining other people.”
This kind of social daydreaming can also help you navigate complicated situations or learn from mistakes.
“We live in a social world,” Poerio said. A lot of what’s happening when we’re daydreaming, she added, is that we’re simulating social interactions or planning out how we would handle social situations in the future.
“One of the benefits that we have as humans is that ability to mentally time travel and to simulate social interactions,” said Poerio.
Since conducting his research, Murayama said that he has tried to resist taking his phone out when he has a few minutes waiting for a bus or an appointment.
“It’s actually quite refreshing,” he said. “I feel a kind of ownership of my thoughts when I entertain myself.”
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