Autistic People Don't Daydream?

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Heck, I do NOTHING but daydream

I agree!

I dont know what kinda BS this article is but I daydream all the time. In fact, we are autistic aren't we always in our own world constantly sorta disconnected from reality at times? I day dream too much sheesh. Of course there are numerous misleading autistic research findings out there.

"There were 12 30-second test periods interspersed with three 21-second rest periods, where participants were simply asked to look at a fixed image of a cross."

Where is the connection between staring at a cross and daydreaming???? I daydream all the time, but this daydreaming involves a lot of thinking and presumably brain activity...

I thought it was part of our condition to be in a world of our own.
Albert Einstein was kicked out of school because he day dreamed too much, was he not autistic? Look where it got him...

Seems to me what I've called "daydreaming" must not have been. I guess that makes sense, since it's more of a deliberate "visualizing" or "imagining", and maybe daydreaming for NTs is more random?
The cynic in me wants to say "here's the next helpful meme for those who want to dehumanize us", though.

Definition Day-dream: "a dreamlike musing or fantasy while awake, especially of the fulfillment of wishes or hopes." (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Daydream)

On the basis of this definition my adult brain, I do NOT daydream. My mind has a preference to think/work with facts/logic/reality, and does not rest/indulge in fantasy, nor in unfulfilled wishes/hopes.

Furthermore, when I "zone out" my mind is analysing NOT dreaming/fantasying.

I do spend alot of time in "my own thought world" but this is analysing and processing, which I consider different to daydreaming.

I suppose it comes down to personal preference, of what topic you find satisfying to think about.

I note, when younger and I had unfulfilled social hopes, I did spend hours fantasying, about the fulfillment of these.

To conclude, I surmise it comes down to personal preference, of what topic you find satisfying/engrossing to think about.

Re: article's conclusions:

"The resting period" (i.e. during daydreaming) "usually gives time for areas of the brain to process emotional and reflective thoughts." I disagree, I operate in reverse! My brain is NOT resting but working hard in a conscious/intentse/analytical way when processing emotion and reflecting.

I fail to see the connection between the lack of daydreaming and "social awkwardness seen in autism". In fact, it could suggest the opposite - ASD people who do daydream alot, should have reduced social awkwardness!!

Last edited by lilaclily on 02 Nov 2012, 7:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You know what I find very weird?

That they do experiments, gain a result, and say "autistic people are all like this".

Why don't they actually ask autistic people? It's not too hard. Do your experiment, and then say "we think that autism means you don't daydream; judging from your experience, is that accurate?" Do they think we might not know what daydreaming is, that it would somehow falsify the result? I don't know. I think it would be a lot cheaper and more efficient.

i daydream alot especially when a walking/running around the garden in a repetitive route.

You've all confirmed what I suspected - that the research was a pile of rubbish. I guess they have to spend their funding somehow . Shame they don't spend it on researching females with AS for a change.

People don't daydream while knowing they are being tested and told to stare at a cross for starters. AS experts have written about people with AS living in fantasy/dream worlds where they make up characters and imagine themselves with other qualities than their real selves (in a non-hallucinatory way). I am really prone to zoning out, which I always felt was a type of daydreaming.

me too. i daydream too much, if anything... i think aspies love to daydream. heard about other aspies that daydream, too.

After reviewing this thread, I've come to the conclusion that my "day dreams" are actually pretty weird.

My "daydreams" generally take one of three forms:

1. I replay my favorite scenes from movies, books, and television shows in my head, or I review pieces of dialog I really like. I also re-arrange the scenes and characters to see other scenarios. This is my most common form of "daydreaming" and is typically what I'm doing if I'm staring off into space, or stuck in a boring situation. I suppose it's akin to mental "stimming." Yes, I'm lame.

2. Getting caught-up in my internal monologue. I have a very chatty "inner voice." Actually, it never shuts the heck up. I can get so distracted talking in my head that I loose awareness of the external world.

3. "Zoning-out." Occasionally, I just "zone-out." I'm not thinking about anything, or visualizing anything. I'm just no longer on planet Earth. I open the fridge to get a Coke, then I "disappear" for 15 minutes while staring at the milk carton. This one tends to freak people out the most.

Conclusion: my brain is dented.

I daydream all the time.

It can be really cool to fly soundlessly through the galaxy, faster than light itself, yet still somehow, beyond the laws of physics, to be able to see the stars flying by something like in a Star Trek episode. But what would it really look like? Stars would be so far away they couldn't possibly look the way they do in those scenes, could they? Would it be more like watching long rainbow like strips of color drifting by, or...

sorry...

...what are we talking about here?

This article is about six years old. Still, even if people still thought this applied to everyone on the spectrum, I'd just laugh in their faces. Seriously, that's just bollocks. Yes, some autistic people are so pragmatic that the very concept of daydreaming is alien to them, but almost every autistic person (high functioning, mid functioning, low functioning, whatevs) engage in daydreaming or imaginative thought to some degree or another. If there was a competition to judge who was the best at daydreaming, I'd be a good contender. In fact, many people on the spectrum daydream as a coping mechanism for their disability.

I would like to stop daydreaming because it always stops me from doing anything. When I was at school, I used to dream all the time and imagined many things and teachers started to notice this, so they many times have asked me something like "what are you doing, are you dreaming about the immortality of the soul? well, well, well.. let's hear what have you learnt from today". This was one of the reasons why the classmates started to bully me.
Never could listen carefully when others spoke (even if I'm not daydreaming). It happens to me when I'm watching documentaries too.
Could it be from ADD?

I think it would be frightening. I don't have a deep fascination for the space and planets. They look horrible to me. If I would be there, I would feel like I would be in a huge stomach with cells and organs and darkness everywhere. I really wonder sometimes if we aren't the cells or atoms of a huge creature. Nevermind!