system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What is actually happening when we daydream, why does it happen?
gpt
It is an altered state of consciousness. Normally, our consciousness is concerned with stimuli entering our sensory store; we're attentive to our surroundings. However, when we daydream, we dissociate and enter a different level of consciousness. We enter a so-called "autopilot," as our attention and consciousness draws inward. This state of dissociation is characterized by more vivid imagination, introspection (or rumination), and a blurring of the external world. Daydreaming happens usually when we're bored with our surroundings (under-stimulated or under-attentive), or when we are trying to escape the external world (more akin to maladaptive dissociation associated with anxiety).