Do you daydream?

[maize]

I've always had stories in my head, adventures I imagine when I'm lying in bed at night or just going about my day when my brain is not otherwise occupied. They are essentially a continuation of the fantasy games I played as a child, though I no longer act them out.

 

I kind of assumed that everyone did this, but discussion has turned up the fact that not everyone does.

 

So...do you daydream? If so, what are your daydreams like?

Edited November 26, 2016 by maize

[OneStepAtATime]

Yes, I daydream.  I used to do as you do and picture various adventures from books I read or conversations I had.  Now my daydreams are more about what I could do differently to improve something, or work through ideas in my head for better ways to educate my kids, or I run through conversations I plan to have with someone or would like to have or wish I had had.  :)

 

DD daydreams, too, and definitely is living adventures and stories in her head.  She is a VERY visually oriented child.  She frequently writes down her daydreams in a notebook of ideas for stories she is writing.

 

I don't think DH daydreams at all.  He tinkers with devices, he repairs things, he takes things apart and puts them together again.  Maybe he dreams about how to take apart toasters or something.  But he never mentions it and doesn't seem to ever just sit and think.

[Greta]

My daughter and I are big daydreamers.  Husband is not.  My daydreams tend to be romantic stories, in various settings and time periods.  But my daughter says that hers are more action/adventure video-game inspired.

 

I definitely get the impression that most people don't daydream, at least not to the extent that dd and I do (pretty elaborate stories).  So I don't tell people about this aspect of myself.  DD is the only one who knows - other than you guys, now.   :blushing:  I told dh just enough once to find out that he doesn't daydream.  I didn't elaborate on what I was talking about.  I've been daydreaming since I was in middle school - so 7th grade or so?  It's just part of me.

[fairfarmhand]

Constantly

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest]

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Edited September 10, 2020 by Æthelthryth the Texan

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yes.  They vary.  Anything like you describe to just working out what I'm going to do about this or that. 

 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Oh, yes music triggered day dreams a lot when I was younger.  Still does sometimes now but not as often.  And books!  Sometimes it would take me forever to get through a book (even though I read quickly) because I would stop to daydream.  :)

[Minerva]

Daydreaming is my favorite hobby.

[Barb_]

No, I don't. I also didn't play fantasy games as a child. I loved setting up houses for my barbies but then when it was all ready to go I'd think, "ok now what should they do?" And then get bored and wander off. In fact now, I never knew exactly what daydreaming entailed until you just spelled it out for me. I do go off on planning reveries, though. I'm constantly maneuvering and adjusting and analyzing situations with people or logistics in my head. I'm left handed with a lot of cross dominance issues though so maybe my creativity is cross wired with my analytical side.

[SquirrellyMama]

Yes, and I'm so thankful to know that others do too. I was a big daydreamer as a child, and it continued on as I got older. I have so many different kinds of daydreams. Some start while I'm reading books, some are just what I'd like to happen in the future in my real life. 

 

Music is a huge trigger, also boredom :) I'm never bored in a daydream.

 

Kelly

[Upward Journey]

My ds once asked me, in a very concerned voice, if it was OK if he "watched movies in his head."

 

Yes, son. Yes it is :)

[mellifera33]

Huh. I just assumed that everyone does it. Now I feel weird.  :tongue_smilie:

[Tanaqui]

Certainly I do. I choose to believe it is a sign of an active inner life.

[Farrar]

Absolutely.

 

Not too long ago I read a piece by a guy with aphantasia (google it if you're interested because fascinating) and I was really blown away thinking about how some people not only don't daydream, but can't picture anything in their minds at all.

[stephanier.1765]

Yes, and I find that I do it more so as I age. But that could just be because the chaos of having a young and busy family has passed. It looks as if I'm not doing anything to anyone else but to me I'm quite content with my thoughts. I wish my dh understood this. To him something must be wrong if I'm just sitting there staring out the window into space.

[Greta]

I used to. Especially when driving. Or listening to music. I think music was a trigger for me- like soundtracks to daydreams. Now I'm never alone and it's never quiet and I realize I hardly ever do it anymore. I wonder if it will come back when the kids are bigger.

 

 

Oh, yes music triggered day dreams a lot when I was younger.  Still does sometimes now but not as often.  And books!  Sometimes it would take me forever to get through a book (even though I read quickly) because I would stop to daydream.   :)

 

 

 

Yes, music is a big inspiration for me too!  I have entire novel-length stories in my head that were inspired by a single song.  :)

[Tap]

Nope. I'm just not creative like that.

[Wheres Toto]

I do pretty much exactly as you describe, right down to continuing fantasies I had as a child.   It's one of the ways I relax to fall asleep at night, and I sometimes do it on long drives because I can't read in the car.  I often incorporate more recent material but the basis is definitely from when I was younger.

 

I honestly thought I was the only person who did this as a somewhere around middle-age adult.

[Garga]

I daydream during those times when I can't get at a book or tv.  So, I daydream during the shower and especially before sleeping.  My dh has trouble falling asleep and I think if he'd just come up with a good daydream, he could nod off.  He says he's too busy thinking of things--problems or whatever.  I sit around thinking about things like:

 

What if it turned out that I'm actually next in line for the throne of England and a bunch of English people showed up at my door and said the current queen wanted to retire?

What if it turned out that I'm actually the smartest person on the planet, and no one recognized it before, and with a little help harnessing my heretofore untapped intellect, I could solve all the problems of the world?

What if I found a genii in a bottle and had three wishes?  If I wished for world peace, would the wish work or would it backfire?

What if (famous person) showed up at my door with a stalled car in a blizzard and we had to hang out together for a day?

 

ETA:  I love daydreaming about somehow or other making a time machine and bringing some famous people forward in time to show them how things turned out.  Like, I'd take da Vinci on an airplane ride or give Mozart some expensive headphones and let him pick whatever music he'd like to listen to.  

Edited November 26, 2016 by Garga

[Garga]

Oh and another one!  I watched Manor House on PBS which shows what it was like to live in a manor like Downton Abbey.  In real life, the staff is worked to the bone and is exhausted all the time.  I like to imagine that I lived in that time, as the lady of the manor, and could actually make the servant's lives wonderful.  Like, get them really comfy beds, implement more time off for them, find labor saving devices for them to use. 

[Guest]

Yeah and in FACT a few times I have realized something was wrong...I was brooding overmuch... When i sat down to day dream, and couldn't conjur up one if my "worlds."

[Selkie]

No, I don't daydream about fictional stories.  My mind is always busy with planning and strategizing and analyzing real life things.  I'm a thinker, not a feeler, so maybe that's why?

 

I also don't enjoy watching movies or tv and I like nonfiction much more than fiction, so I guess my brain is just not wired for fantasy and make-believe things.

[DawnM]

Yes, all the time.  But it isn't really fantasy as in Lord of the Rings or Starwars, it is more like real life scenarios.

 

I also plan and strategize real life things.   I am not a feeler on the M-B test at all, but I do daydream. 

[Chris in VA]

Wow, I've never told anyone this, but...Yep! Big daydreamer. I have whole characters and scenarios --they have changed from when I was younger, but still basically the same. 

 

One is a play on Peter and Wendy. In one permutation, set in the era of the Crusades, Peter is from a noble family in France (Normandy) who lives in England. Wendy is his fiance. She lost her memory as a young teen but still has glimpses of her former life as a princess (Felicia) from a little-known kingdom. She lives in Wickham, outside of Nottingham. They have previously interacted with Robin Hood, giving food from Peter's farm. They are nearing their marriage when Peter decides to join the Crusades with the King. He goes off and is captured. Wendy turns to Robin's band when there is a fire in Wickham, set by Guy of Gisborne and his (ahem) henchmen. She is actually Robin's cousin (but not really, but a family that adopted her says she is). Um, let's see--oh yeah, she falls in love with Will, but has to fight it because she is still waiting for Peter, although it's been 3 years. She receives a ring from a soldier who went off with Peter and thinks it is his, and that he is dead, but she is unsure. She must legally wait 7 years for him to be proclaimed dead anyway. She has various adventures in the forest. 

 

There's more, but I won't bore you. 

[maize]

Yes, all the time. But it isn't really fantasy as in Lord of the Rings or Starwars, it is more like real life scenarios.

 

I also plan and strategize real life things. I am not a feeler on the M-B test at all, but I do daydream.

I developed extravagant daydreams based on Lord of the Rings as a teenager. I still occasionally revisit Middle Earth when I'm in the mood.

[lllll]

nm

Edited December 12, 2016 by ..Kathy..

[lmrich]

I had a great imagination as a kid and loved to play pretend. I still have a great imagination... I 'justify' my hours daydreaming as time spent working on the plots of some great books!  

[Guest]

Oh yes. Always have and probably always will.

[Melissa in Australia]

Yes, all the time

[fairfarmhand]

I daydream during those times when I can't get at a book or tv.  So, I daydream during the shower and especially before sleeping.  My dh has trouble falling asleep and I think if he'd just come up with a good daydream, he could nod off.  He says he's too busy thinking of things--problems or whatever.  I sit around thinking about things like:

 

What if it turned out that I'm actually next in line for the throne of England and a bunch of English people showed up at my door and said the current queen wanted to retire?

What if it turned out that I'm actually the smartest person on the planet, and no one recognized it before, and with a little help harnessing my heretofore untapped intellect, I could solve all the problems of the world?

What if I found a genii in a bottle and had three wishes?  If I wished for world peace, would the wish work or would it backfire?

What if (famous person) showed up at my door with a stalled car in a blizzard and we had to hang out together for a day?

 

ETA:  I love daydreaming about somehow or other making a time machine and bringing some famous people forward in time to show them how things turned out.  Like, I'd take da Vinci on an airplane ride or give Mozart some expensive headphones and let him pick whatever music he'd like to listen to.  

 

I "what if" unrealistic scenarios CONSTANTLY!

 

I also use my daydreams for good when I'm writing skits for my drama group. Especially when I know what my cast is capable of, I literally can picture the actors and actresses performing the skits. It really helps me as a director, because I already know what the finished product is supposed to look like!

 

It can be frustrating though when my cast doesn't get my vision!

 

[Outdoorsy Type]

Yes. I daydream a lot, and I'm rarely bored. This is especially true when I'm reading a book series I love.

[Mergath]

Yep. Very elaborate daydreams with long, complex story arcs.

 

I'm happy to know I'm not the only one because I seriously thought I was.

[KrissiK]

Oh yes! I always have. I get bored with my own life so I imagine myself in stories that are the opposite of being a middle aged housewife in a small town.

[Seeking Squirrels]

I used to a lot. Though I don't know that I ever really "see" much, just think it, if that makes sense. For a while when my oldest was much younger I was doing it a LOT and I started thinking it was a bad thing because it was distracting me from whatever else I should be doing. So I started stopping myself anytime my mind wandered off like that. Now I only really do at night when I'm lying in bed, but I'm usually so tired I don't stay awake long. I don't know if I trained the tendency out, or if it's just because I now have two kids who never give me peace so I don't have a chance! It's good to see it discussed as perfectly normal. Maybe I *was* doing it too much instead of taking care of responsibilities, but there's a middle ground and I don't want to beat it completely away. 

[SKL]

Yes, my mind is a continuous movie 24/7.  I was also surprised to find that some of my friends' minds are only thinking when they are actively *thinking.*

[elegantlion]

I still daydream, which has turned into some interesting actual middle of the night dreams. 

 

Way back when Jurassic Park came out in the theaters I worked in an office park that was wooded. I worked on the sixth floor of a glass office building. That year we had terrible thunderstorms that would shake the window and the thunder sounded like T-Rex steps. I would imagine a T-Rex stomping out of the forest and my only solace was that we were probably too high for him to get us. yeah, I am weird. 

 

I write fiction and I use the time before bed to work on plot lines and pose questions about my characters. I usually get some good answers by morning, sometimes via those weird dreams. 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I did all of the time when I was younger. I mostly day dreamed about Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, etc. I was forever creating new missions and ways to save whatever new people or planet I had discovered. My daydreams were how I escaped reality and kept myself occupied as I walked to and fro. I wasn't allowed to get a driver's licence and my mom rarely drove me places. If I wanted to be in school clubs or whatever I had to walk; that meant walking home in the dark at times and daydreaming helped allay my fears. 

 

I've never daydreamed while getting ready for bed. I have always read myself to sleep.  Until recently, now I watch Netflix on the Kindle.

 

I don't daydream much anymore. I mostly use that time to compose eloquent speeches and conversations that I wish I could give or have. 

[Guest]

Yep. Very elaborate daydreams with long, complex story arcs.

 

I'm happy to know I'm not the only one because I seriously thought I was.

There are whole swaths of us - I believe we are called "fanfiction authors".

 

Solidarity :D

[Tanaqui]

Well, though, if any of us daydream excessively you might find this article on maladaptive daydreaming useful.

[Guest]

Well, though, if any of us daydream excessively you might find this article on maladaptive daydreaming useful.

That was sad! I've never personally seen someone so stuck in the loop as to have it look like OCD, but I can see how it could happen :(

[maize]

Well, though, if any of us daydream excessively you might find this article on maladaptive daydreaming useful.

That was an interesting read. I think it exemplifies the fact that almost anything can reach a point of excess where it takes over a person's life and causes harm--becoming pathological.

 

The article seems to draw an association between pathological daydreaming and repetitive movement--my experience is that movement helps me think, regardless of what kind of thinking it is. I tend to pace when talking on the phone, and I know I have read studies indicating that walking increases brain activity.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I also daydream about life's possibilities (the multiverse me) - If I had decided to go straight to grad school what would my life be like? If I had accepted that internship in Australia, what would I be doing right now? If I continued to drive on this highway, where would I go and what would I do when I got there? I have to be careful here because my daydreams can quite easily become melancholic and focused on regret. I don't want that to happen. 

 

While driving, I like to think of the lives of the people in the homes I drive by especially if people are outside. The back highways are best for this. I create all sorts of backstories and life histories for people. I like thinking about the love that went into building a home and how those houses have changed over the years.

 

Just yesterday, as I was driving a back highway in West Virginia, I saw a 1950's camper being used as a chicken coop. My mind wandered to the 50's to when it was shiny and new and a young couple purchased it and began life's adventures together; perhaps it was purchased right after marriage or maybe in their middle years after having scraped and saved for the camper. Maybe they towed it to Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. Maybe the couple shared adventures with their children and into their old age (can't you picture a couple in their 70's or 80's sitting in the camper wrapped in cozy blankets, drinking tea and reminiscing?). Perhaps their children didn't have the opportunity to travel after the WV economy collapsed and chose to convert the camper into a chicken coop to supplement their income. I can see a great-grand child looking through old photos of the family's trips and choosing to rescue the camper from the chickens, deciding to refurbish it, and setting out on new adventures, possibly stopping at some of the same places the great-grandparents had visited years ago. Or maybe the great-grandparent is still alive and the great-grand child is going to refurbish the camper, and take Grammy on one last adventure.

 

--

And now I can picture a wonderful children's storybook about a camper. I can envision the pictures to accompany the story. :)

 

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2016 by Scoutermom

[itsmylife]

Whew!  I am no longer worried about my mental state. 

[Seeking Squirrels]

That was sad! I've never personally seen someone so stuck in the loop as to have it look like OCD, but I can see how it could happen :(

 

This article detailed a much more extreme example than my own, but this is similar to what I was doing when I feared it was too much and started training myself to stop. Obviously mine wasn't as bad since I WAS able to train myself to stop. I think mine started out of mental boredom. Being home all day with a small child was not mentally engaging enough for me. Physically, yes, but not mentally.

 

I had a way of daydreaming someone being with me at all times. So no matter what I was doing, there was at least one other person there with me. I would have detailed conversations with them. I would alter what I was doing IRL based off of that person. Not like an imaginary friend, I knew it was all just daydreaming, I never thought they were really there. And it wasn't usually just a friend visiting to keep me company or anything. For a long time, the visitor was actually someone from CPS. Maybe triggered from anxiety, I don't know. But the cps worker in my "fantasy" had to follow me around always. They had to see how we lived. So they were with me constantly. I couldn't just read a book to my toddler, I had to make a point of not looking at the page as I read so the cps worker would see I obviously read to her often because I have this book memorized. We watched less tv than we otherwise might have because I didn't want the cps worker to see us doing that. 

 

I started doing it again just a couple years ago, but this time with a celebrity crush as my tagalong. Everything I did, he came along. If I was able to zone out from what I was doing IRL, then that's when we went off together to other places. When I had to be present, I made him part of whatever I was doing. It became very exhausting. I had an easier time breaking this cycle than the one before. I weaned myself in a way by allowing the daydreams to continue at certain times. The shower and bedtime specifically since those wouldn't interfere with time with my kids or responsibilities. 

 

I do think I have mild OCD, though it's never been diagnosed. I had never considered that being part of those insistent daydreams. 

[KungFuPanda]

I daydream! I have imaginary conversations, write extra scenes for books I've read, and I'm always working on the newest choreography for my students. I'm never bored because even with nothing to do (like that even happens in my life) there is always something for 'me' to do in my head. I thought it was just run-of-the-mill thinking, but apparently not everyone does it. I also had imaginary friends as a child.

[maize]

This article detailed a much more extreme example than my own, but this is similar to what I was doing when I feared it was too much and started training myself to stop. Obviously mine wasn't as bad since I WAS able to train myself to stop. I think mine started out of mental boredom. Being home all day with a small child was not mentally engaging enough for me. Physically, yes, but not mentally.

 

I had a way of daydreaming someone being with me at all times. So no matter what I was doing, there was at least one other person there with me. I would have detailed conversations with them. I would alter what I was doing IRL based off of that person. Not like an imaginary friend, I knew it was all just daydreaming, I never thought they were really there. And it wasn't usually just a friend visiting to keep me company or anything. For a long time, the visitor was actually someone from CPS. Maybe triggered from anxiety, I don't know. But the cps worker in my "fantasy" had to follow me around always. They had to see how we lived. So they were with me constantly. I couldn't just read a book to my toddler, I had to make a point of not looking at the page as I read so the cps worker would see I obviously read to her often because I have this book memorized. We watched less tv than we otherwise might have because I didn't want the cps worker to see us doing that.

 

I started doing it again just a couple years ago, but this time with a celebrity crush as my tagalong. Everything I did, he came along. If I was able to zone out from what I was doing IRL, then that's when we went off together to other places. When I had to be present, I made him part of whatever I was doing. It became very exhausting. I had an easier time breaking this cycle than the one before. I weaned myself in a way by allowing the daydreams to continue at certain times. The shower and bedtime specifically since those wouldn't interfere with time with my kids or responsibilities.

 

I do think I have mild OCD, though it's never been diagnosed. I had never considered that being part of those insistent daydreams.

I can see how this kind of intrusive daydreaming could be problematic, I'm glad that it has been a manageable issue for you and it certainly does seem like it could be a manifestation of OCD type intrusive thoughts. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

My daydreams are not intrusive and don't infringe on daily activities, they're just a way to step outside of my daily grind and relax, like sitting down to read or watch a show when I need a break.

 

One odd/interesting thing I have noticed is that my desire to daydream fluctuates along with my monthly hormonal cycle. That would make more sense if my daydreams were romantic in some way but they usually are not. I assume that hormone levels are affecting brain activity in some way that makes me seek out my fantasy escapes more at certain points in the cycle than at others.

Edited November 28, 2016 by maize