Daydreaming Is Good for the Mind

Posted by Heartmind News Flash Monday, March 19th, 2012

(LiveScience) Catch yourself daydreaming while washing the dishes again? If this happens often you probably have a pretty capable working memory, new research suggests.

This mind wandering, it seems, actually gives your working memory a workout. Working memory is the mental work space that allows the brain to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. The more working memory a person has, the more daydreaming they can do without forgetting the task at hand.

“Our results suggest that the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they’re on the bus, when they’re cycling to work, when they’re in the shower — are probably supported by working memory,” study researcher Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, said in a statement. “Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems.”

Read the full article:
http://www.livescience.com/19128-wandering-mind-working-memory.html

Photo: khrawlings