Daydream vs. Nightmare — What's the Difference?

Daydreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current, external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction. This phenomenon is common in people's daily life shown by a large-scale study in which participants spend 47% of their waking time on average on daydreaming.

A nightmare, also called a bad dream, is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. However, psychological nomenclature differentiates between nightmares and bad dreams; specifically, people remain asleep during bad dreams, whereas nightmares can awaken individuals.

A dreamlike musing or fantasy while awake, especially of the fulfillment of wishes or hopes.

A dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress.

To have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake.

An event or experience that is intensely distressing.

A spontaneous series of thoughts while awake not connected to immediate reality.

A demon or spirit once thought to plague sleeping people.

(intransitive) To have such a series of thoughts; to woolgather.

A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.

A vain fancy speculation; a reverie; a castle in the air; unfounded hope.

A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; Sleep paralysis.

Absent-minded dreaming while awake

A very bad or frightening dream.

Have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy

(figuratively) Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure.

Have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake;

To have a nightmare.

A fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep.

A trerrifying or oppressive dream characterized by a sense of helplessness in the face of danger, extreme uneasiness or discomfort (as of weight on the chest or stomach, impossibility of motion or speech, etc.) or extreme anxiety, from which one wakes in a troubled state of mind.

Any overwhelming, oppressive, or terrifying experience resembling a nightmare{2} especially in the inability to escape from an unpleasant situation.

A situation resembling a terrifying dream

A terrifying or deeply upsetting dream