Daydreaming

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information, and removing excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia's inclusion policy. (September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction.

Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, and spontaneous thoughts. There are many types of daydreams – however, the most common characteristic to all forms of daydreaming meets the criteria for mild dissociation. In addition, the impacts of the various types of daydreams are not identical. While some are disruptive and deleterious, others may be beneficial to some degree.

The term daydreaming is derived from clinical psychologist Jerome L. Singer, whose research created the foundation for nearly all subsequent modern research. The terminologies assigned by modern researchers brings about challenges centering on identifying the common features of daydreaming and building collective work among researchers.^[1]