New study highlights differences between mind-wandering and maladaptive daydreaming

A new study published in the quality open-access journal Plos One reports that maladaptive daydreaming did not significantly predict sleep disturbances the following night. We found that while nightly sleep disturbances predicted mind-wandering the following day, it did not significantly predict maladaptive daydreaming the following day. Moreover, daily mind-wandering did not significantly predict sleep disturbances the following night. One possible explanation for this distinction is that poor sleep temporarily reduces executive cognitive control, which would reduce people’s ability to prevent the mind from wandering. Another possibility is that poor sleep leads to lower functional connectivity and increased frequency of mind-wandering episodes. Maladaptive daydreaming, on the other hand, may involve a narrower focus of attention, and therefore demand a higher degree of cognitive control and coherence than mind wandering.