Study finds our minds wander half the time

Researchers at Harvard University found that people's minds wander on average 46.9 per cent of the time, when they think about things that aren't going on around them.

Participants in the survey, which analysed behaviour recorded on an iPhone web app, said they were distracted no less than 30 per cent of the time during every activity, except making love, when they were more focused than usual.

The research, published in the American journal Science, also showed that mind wandering typically made people unhappy.

People were at their happiest when exercising or engaging in conversation, but least happy when resting, working or using a home computer.

Psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, the authors of the study, found that the 2,250 volunteers spent time thinking about past, future and hypothetical events.

"Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities," said Mr Killingsworth, a doctoral student at Harvard. This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present."

The participants, aged between 18 and 88, were asked to select one of 22 general activities and record how happy they were while doing it, as well as whether they were thinking about their current activity or something else.

Mr Killingsworth said: "Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment.

"These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind."