白日梦还是少做为妙

Yes, it can make you more creative and lead to greater self-reflection, but one of the biggest upsides to daydreaming may be the one with the most immediate impact — namely, that it provides an easy escape from whatever boring thing you’re stuck doing. Your body may be trapped on the subway for another 45 minutes, but your mind can travel to any number of more enjoyable scenarios; letting your imagination wander can make mundane to-dos like cleaning or exercise a little more fun; there’s a whole Reddit page dedicated to the weird places your brain takes you while you’re in the shower.

没错，白日梦能让你更有创造力，让你进行更深刻地自我反思，但白日做梦最大的坏处之一可能也是它最直接的影响之一——它能够让你逃离自己不想做的事情。你的身体可能被困在地铁里四十五分钟，但你的心灵却能够到达任何比地铁更有趣的场景中;让你的想象驰骋能够让单调的待办事项(比如打扫和锻炼)变得更加有趣;Reddit还甚至为人们在浴室里想象过的奇怪地方贡献了一整个页面。

But as writer Libby Copeland recently explained in Smithsonian, daydreaming-as-escapism isn’t really as effective as we seem to think it is: Research has shown that it doesn’t make people any happier than just focusing on the moment, even when that moment isn’t really that great. In one 2010 study, researchers created an app that sent users seemingly random alerts over the course of the day, each time asking them what they were doing, whether they were thinking about the task at hand or something else, and how happy they felt. Copeland summed up the results:

但正如作家Libby Copeland最近在《史密森尼学会》上解释的那样，作为逃避的白日做梦并没有我们想象中的那样有效。已有研究发现比起专注于当下，白日做梦并不会让人们变得更加开心，即便当下这一时刻没那么美好。在2010年的一项研究中，研究人员们创造出了一种应用程序，它能够在一天之中随机给人们发送提醒。每次的提醒都会问人们正在做什么，他们是正在思考手头的任务，还是在想别的事情，以及他们的开心程度。Copeland总结的结果如下：

Overall, people were less happy when their minds wandered. Neutral and negative thoughts seemed to make them less happy than being in the moment, and pleasant thoughts made them no happier. Even when people were engaged in an activity they said they didn’t like—commuting, for example—they were happier when focused on the commute than when their minds strayed.

总体而言，当人们的思想信马由缰的时候并没有专注于当下那么开心。比起专注于当下，中立和负面的思想会让他们没那么开心，而快乐的想法也不会让他们更加开心。就算人们正在做自己并不喜欢的事情(比如通勤路上)，他们专注于通勤也会比各种白日做梦更加开心。

What’s more, people’s negative moods appeared to be the result, rather than the cause, of the mind wandering.

更重要的是，人们的负面情绪会成为白日做梦的结果而不是原因。

One possible explanation, as lead study author Matt Killingsworth told Smithsonian: “When our mind wanders, I think it really blunts the enjoyment of what it is that we’re doing.” Even if you’re not occupied with something enjoyable, there can still be small pleasures in it: interesting people-watching on the subway, for instance, or Copeland’s example of the feel of hot water against your skin in the shower — both things you miss when you let yourself zone out. Plus, there’s always the chance your daydream could turn into a worry spiral, sending your brain to a situation far less pleasant than the one you were trying to ignore in the first place.

该研究的主要作者Matt Killingsworth认为一个可能的解释是：“当我们的思想信马由缰的时候，它就会让我们当下的享受变得模糊起来。”就算你没做什么享受的事情，可能这事儿中间也会给你带来一点小愉悦：比如地铁上看到的有趣之人，或者Copeland说的淋浴时热水流过皮肤的感觉。当你去想别的事情时，你就会错过这些。另外，你的白日做梦也总是很有可能陷入担心的漩涡，它发送给你的愉悦远远少于你想要忽略的东西。