Daydreaming is something in which we all engage in to some degree. It is a form of dreaming, but as research has shown it is also different from the kind of dreaming we do when we are asleep. Daydreaming was once viewed simply as being idle and was not seen as something to be studied so much as something to be eliminated in the schoolchild and the worker. At best, daydreaming might have been associated with creativity for such as the poet, while for others it was seen as a bar to productive work. However, researchers then began considering the underlying meaning of daydreaming and what it might say about individual abilities, behaviors, skills, and performance.
The question was raised and analyzed as to whether daydreaming actually increased productivity. Researchers continue to develop theories and analyze daydreaming to find its origins, its effects, and ways of harnessing whatever benefits it might bring. Daydreaming research began with research into dreams in general and then became a field of study all its own as the nature of daydreaming was noted and as new questions were raised about its meaning, benefits, and importance.
Prior to 1900, the developing field of psychology primarily addressed dreams in sleep. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung developed differing views of mental processes and psychological development, and these differences are seen in their views on dreams and myths, the meaning of dreams, and the way dreams reflect and reinforce myths about the meaning of human behavior. The different views each takes of dreams are reflected in their methods of interpretation, the meaning they place on dreaming, and related issues. Hunt (1992) states that the differences between Freud and Jung with respect to dreams can be found both in terms of their contrastive dream theories and methods of interpretation and in their own dreams and related subjective states. Hunt points out that Freud's dreams are often confused a...