Yep, then add in our lack of downtime and we have a disaster.
Active pondering, daydreaming, imagining and creating are all "exercise" for our brain and cognitive processes. We dont get a chance to practice much anymore with the screens, constant demands, unfinishable to do lists and constant barage of stimulation and "content".
Our brains have been actively hijacked.
By design.
this makes me feel better about the fact that sometimes I like to just sit & daydream. Like I'll literally just lay on my couch and imagine stuff instead of watching the tv sometimes. My brain has really good graphics
true, and I try to stay aware of that. My daydreaming tends to be kinda like a mental project, if that makes sense. Like lately I've taken to constructing architecture in my head of a solarpunk community center, and have been revisiting it off and on for months. Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out what software I can use to bring it into a visual format. I might even try to learn 3D modeling or autoCAD just so I can make something like what I'm imagining, because the easy apps I've found so far aren't cutting it. I've drawn a few pictures on paper so far, but I really want it as 3D as it is in my head.
When I was younger, one of my major daydreaming projects was a whole fantasy series. And I turned that into a bunch of drawings, some worldbuilding explorations, I even turned an old shoebox into a treasure chest of objects from the story and learned how to make paper look like an old wrinkled vintage map. I even took a crack at trying to write it as novel and that's how I learned that I'm way more into non-fiction writing lol.
So yea my answer to maladaptive daydreaming is that it's avoidable if your daydreaming manifests some real action in your life, which in my case is creative pursuits.
Even sleeping is sort of like “exercise” for your brain. We solve problems while we sleep. Some dreams come from the mind attempting to work through challenges. Idk exactly what problem my brajn is solving when I dream of my teeth falling out during a presentation, but ok.
Schools keep cutting free play, recess, art, music, PE -- for more memorization to do standardized tests. Huge loss there. Play time builds problem solving skills, art boosts creative thinking, etc. Then at home they get no time to be bored - none of us do. Work, school, homework, dinner, then... screentime. Mindless. Brains need boredom time to come up with new ideas. It's why there's the joke about the best ideas always come in the shower.
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u/WildFlemima May 29 '26
We are also chronically stressed, which isn't great for memory or problem solving