Daydreaming Can Be Good for You

Your high school English teacher might have called you a space cadet, but in reality, even the briefest mental vacations can restore a sense of well-being.

For decades, psychologists have equated daydreaming with a failure of cognitive control, focusing on how it stunts abilities like task processing, reading comprehension and memory. Yet, Jerome Singer, a former professor at Pennsylvania State University and the father of daydreaming research, hypothesized that daydreaming can have a positive effect. If not, why would our minds be so prone to wander?

From Rebecca Renner in the New York Times.