Thanks Steve, for this curius article …..
Spacing Out Half the Day Makes People Unhappy in Harvard Study
By Elizabeth Lopatto – Nov 12, 2010 2:00 AM GMT+0700 Thu Nov 11 19:00:00 GMT 2010
People spend almost half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and their daydreaming usually doesn’t take them to a happy place, a study reports.
People’s minds wandered about 46.9 percent of the time, and no less than 30 percent of the time during every activity except sex, according to a study in the journal Science. Straying attention occurred most often at work.
Some religions suggest happiness is to be found by focusing on what’s happening at the moment, or “be here now,” the authors wrote, using a title of a 1971 book by spirituality and meditation guru Ram Dass. By analyzing the data over time, the researchers discovered that people didn’t merely fantasize when they were unhappy; instead, wandering minds led to unhappiness, said study author Matthew Killingsworth, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“People spend a lot of time with their minds wandering and that seems to be damaging for their happiness,” Killingsworth said in a telephone interview. The ability to think about things other than the present is a uniquely human trait, and seems to come with an emotional trade-off, he said.
Harvard University researchers surveyed over 2,200 people using an app on their iPhones, made by Cupertino, California- based Apple Inc., to ask them what they were doing, how happy they were, whether their minds were wandering, and how their daydreams made them feel. People were aged 18 to 88, and 74 percent of the participants were American.
Thinking Nice Thoughts
Though people thought of positive things 42.5 percent of the time, they were no happier when thinking of those things than when focusing on what they were doing, the data showed. People were more unhappy when their mind wandered to neutral or unpleasant thoughts.
That the data were immediate, as people were going about their days, rather than retrospective, allowed researchers to investigate specific activities throughout the day, including traveling, working, watching television and eating.
Analysis of the samples over time showed that those whose minds wandered when asked about their condition reported being more unhappy after a mind-wandering episode than when focused on their activity, the authors wrote. No relationship was found between being unhappy and having a wandering mind at the time of contact.
“Although this does not preclude the possibility that unhappiness also caused mind-wandering, such an effect seems to play at most a modest role in the present results,” the authors wrote.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/daydreaming-occurs-in-half-of-waking-hours-except-during-sex-study-finds.html
Is there a difference between “daydreaming” and “mind wandering?” I think there is.
Daydreaming is fantasizing about something one wants. Wandering, however, could involve any kind of thought not directly relevant to one’s present activities or focus.
So does daydreaming make you unhappy? I would hazard a guess that when one enters that pleasantly fuzzy state of mind, it probably does make you feel temporarily a bit happier. But, does that effect carry over when your attention returns to present reality? More studies are needed, I’m sure.
I guess compared to mindfulness, daydreaming and mind wandering are the same – both are opposed to mindfulness. Perhaps mind wandering is undirected, while daydreaming is directed (sasankharikham). Humans love to be unmindful – to be absorbed in something. I doubt it is happy, but is is comfortable. A comfortable old habit like a pair of worn slippers. I guess the way the test is set up, you are brought out of your hazy funk, and then judge the state of mind objectively.
But I’ve read that mind wandering (whether directed or not) can be a very healthy activity. Say you’re working hard on a project, whether of scientific discovery or of artistic bent, and super-focused, but not able to make any break-throughs. So you go do something else, or just let your mind wander while doing dishes, and suddenly that “A-ha!” moment comes.
Can’t mind wandering be another form of intelligence, non-linear, non-focused, but still productive?
By the way, thank you for introducing me to the term “sasankharikham.” Apparently it is truly obscure, even arcane in nature. I searched Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wolfram Alpha and only one page on the entire web seems to mention it.
Sure – there are lots of productive ways for the mind to act – mathmatics, engineering if you are building a bridge, fantasy if you are writing fiction ….
In terms of mindfulness though, they are all ‘wandering mind’
Properly written – the ‘directed’ vs ‘undirected’ modes of the mind are
sasa.nkhaarika.m and asa.nkhaarika.m which appear in the Abhidhammattha Sangaha – the main manual for study of Abhidhamma (one of the 3 sets of scripture in Buddhism)
Greed states can be either directed or not. Delusion states are not directed (moha) and anger (dosa) states are always directed …. according to the text book anyway.