问答题 Our attitudes towards daydreaming have been much like our attitudes towards dreaming in our sleep. Night dreaming was once thought to interfere with normal sleep, to rob us of necessary rest. But experiments have indicated that dreams are a normal part of sleep, and that dreaming each night is necessary for mental health.
1 Dr. William Dement, who is experimenting on the significance of dreaming at Sinai Hospital in New York, reports that those subjects whose dreams are interrupted regularly exhibit emotional disturbances: high blood pressure, anxiety, irritability, and difficulty in concentrating. "One of the subjects," Dr. Dement reported, "left the study in apparent alarm, and two insisted on stopping, presumably because the stress was too great." As soon as the subjects were allowed to dream again, all psychological disturbances vanished.
Prolonged daydream deprivation also results in mounting anxiety and tension. And many daydream-deprived people find that eventually the need can no longer be suppressed: daydreaming erupts spontaneously.
2 During times of stress, daydreaming erects a temporary shield against reality, in much the same way that building a house protects our bodies from the elements. Both may be seen as forms of escapism, but no one wants to spend life in an unrelieved battle for survival. We are entitled to occasional strategic withdrawals to regroup our forces.
Recent research on daydreaming indicates that it is an essential part of daily life. Daydreaming, it has been discovered, is an effective means of relaxation. But the beneficial effects of daydreaming go beyond that. 3 Experiments conducted by Dr. Joan T. Freyberg, a New York City psychotherapist, showed that daydreaming significantly helps intellectual growth, powers of concentration, attention span, and the ability to communicate with others. Dr. Freyberg also discovered that her patients who easily engaged in fantasy-making usually responded more quickly to treatment.