Term information
Short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings, during which a person's contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake.
Daydreaming /inattention is common in childhood and events are frequently misdiagnosed as absence seizures. Daydreams are often situational (seen more frequently at times when the child is tired or relaxed or bored) and are longer than absences. Daydreams manifest as the child staring forward blankly, whilst motionless and not responding to those around them. There is usually no loss of body tone in a daydream and eyelid flickering does not occur. A daydream may be aborted by measures to attract the child's attention from the daydream, whereas a child cannot be distracted out of an absence seizure. Broadly stereotyped motor behaviors may accompany the daydream, particularly in children with learning disability and autistic features. Daydreams are often more pronounced in children with attention and learning difficulties.