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Surprising Science

Why Day Dreaming Is Good For You

“A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals,” says The New York Times. Researchers find benefits to being a bit airy.
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“A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals,” says The New York Times. Researchers find benefits to being a bit airy. “There’s an evolutionary advantage to the brain’s system of mind wandering, says Eric Klinger, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota and one of the pioneers of the field. ‘While a person is occupied with one task, this system keeps the individual’s larger agenda fresher in mind,’ Dr. Klinger writes in the ‘Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation’. ‘It thus serves as a kind of reminder mechanism, thereby increasing the likelihood that the other goal pursuits will remain intact and not get lost in the shuffle of pursuing many goals.'”

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