Daydream Your Way to Smarter Learning - The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

It seems almost impossible for people to be bored these days.  Everywhere you look, people are staring at their smartphone screens whenever they find themselves with more than a few seconds to spare.

New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests we should put our phones down as it finds that letting our minds drift into a daydream actually helpsyour brain to learn.

Drawing inspiration from studies on local sleep, where certain brain regions seem to briefly nap while the rest of us stays awake, the researchers theorised that daydreaming could reflect a brain state similar to sleep, allowing it to consolidate information and form memories more efficiently.

To put this to the test, the researchers asked volunteers to perform a probabilistic learning task that involved detecting patterns and learning without conscious effort. As the participants worked, their brain activity was monitored using high-density EEG (electroencephalography).

After the task, participants self-reported how focused they had been. The results were surprising: those who admitted to letting their minds drift off showed improved learning, especially in the early stages of the task. Not only did they perform just as well as the fully focused group, but their brain activity revealed signs of a sleep-like state, without them ever closing their eyes.

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