Daydreaming is hard work

05/18/2009

This article has made all the rounds, but just in case you missed it: your brain is much more active during daydreaming than was commonly thought.

Functional MRI scans showed that the area of the brain responsible for complex problem solving does not go dormant when you daydream, but in fact becomes very active.

As I suggest in Pragmatic Thinking & Learning, these researchers concluded that:

"The quantity and quality of brain activity suggests that people struggling to solve complicated problems might be better off switching to a simpler task and letting their mind wander."

Putting your feet up on the desk while daydreaming is optional...

/\ndy