Stop Resting, Start This Instead
At 11.20am this morning we're forming a new society
We all know rest is good for us, but it’s almost impossible to do. First making the time, then, if you do, stopping the inner swirl. It can all feel painfully unachievable. So I have a new approach. I’m going to stop trying.
Here’s what we’re doing instead. It’s big and you’re hearing it here first. Instead of trying to empty your brain to nothing, just redirect it. Switch the channel to something dreamier. Welcome to the mind-wandering prescription. We’re forming a new coalition - The Society of Daydreamers.
As adults we may not pretend play much any more, but we have our equivalent. Time-use studies have found adults have around 2000 daydreams a day, and the average lasts for about 14 seconds. That means we spend almost half of our waking hours (46.9% to be precise), a third of our lives, in daydreams.
Daydreams, like pretend play, activate the default mode network (DMN), which is the less goal-oriented part of our brains. The DMN allows us to consolidate learning, to access creativity and deeper problem solving, to switch between tasks without losing efficacy, to plan for the future, to embed memories, to meaningfully self-reflect.
You already daydream, but the problem is you do it all wrong. Your mind can’t help but wander, but our productivity-nutty culture means you feel guilty, so the wandering gets subverted - twisted and jammed on stop-start. Obsessive thought loops, fantasies of tidy closets, daydreaming your way to the end of the inbox. Your brain is going to imagine with or without you, the difference is whether you get to enjoy it, and how useful it gets to be.
We think of daydreams as ‘wasted’ time, even the scientists studying it feel they have to headline the evidence that daydreaming increases productivity (true story by the way). But these imaginative breaks are more than a nice respite for improved efficiency. Jerome Singer and Dorothy Singer (one of the many superb science husband-wife research teams I’ve found going super-geek on imagination) led the field of daydreaming research in the 1960s. He showed how daydreaming is a tool for greater mental resilience, a healer of trauma, a problem-solving-power tool, a productivity juicer and a source of genuine relaxation. It’s even been found to reinforce and enhance social skills. And it can be fun, a literal holiday for our brains.
What if we were as intentional about our daydreams as we might be about mindfulness? What if we set the clock, gave ourselves a prompt, and let the make believe rollercoaster take us somewhere luscious.
A recent study showed that 11.20am is the peak daydream hour for adults in the U.K. Apparently the most popular distraction is to dream of holidays. So at 11.20 this morning let's all try it. But not just any holiday, how about the holiday you’d take if you won the lottery, or what a holiday from 1760 would have looked like, or one in 2106. What about a holiday for a snail - let’s get weird folks. If you’re home on Easter break with the kids ask them and report back!
Laura x
And now for some morsels of delight:
You know I love a mini-book - the world’s smallest books at the Victoria & Albert museum.
These nut-free granola bars are super easy to make and have been a kid-hit (they feature Rice Krispies so, naturally).
Francesca Hornak’s post took me on a retro-toy joy ride - Keypers and Hasbro Glo Worms anyone? Her whole substack is deeply pleasing.
