There’s a new medical term for excessive daydreaming: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. This is not a joke; research into this possible condition has been in progress for thirty years or so. Although it has yet to be recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it has conferences and articles in its name.Some supporters of the new diagnosis wax exuberant over the supposed clarity it brings to the ADHD question (since it overlaps with what has been known as ADHD).
Before discussing the problems with such a diagnosis, I will give it its due. “Sluggish Cognitive Tempo” (SCT) is the term for a cluster of symptoms: daydreaming, mental fog, confusion, frequent staring, and others. Researchers have been looking into the possibility that this cluster exists apart from ADHD. If this were so, and if treatment were found for the condition, many children and adults could be spared the pain and risks of misdiagnosis–and might have access to effective treatment. For those whose condition prevents them from functioning from day to day, this could be a godsend (or a science-send).
So, why fret over this? I worry for Walter Mitty, the protagonist of James Thurber’s story and the film based on it (the one starring Danny Kaye; I was unable to bring myself to see the more recent one). Walter Mitty would have been diagnosed with SCT, and then we would not have had him. There would be no “ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.” Mitty would be “on task.”
In fact, many a wandering mind would be herded back onto the task at hand. But maybe some of those wanderings are more interesting than the task. Maybe we attach too much value to task performance. (I bring this up–in relation to solitude, not SCT–on BBC World Service’s program The Forum.)
I have had students who had difficulty staying on task because they were thinking about the subject in an interesting way–as well as students who seemed “off-task” because they were actually concentrating hard (and not taking notes as the others were). I myself tended not to take notes in school; I preferred to listen and think. Fortunately my teachers let me be; today, I would be considered off-task.
The daydreamer may actually be highly attentive–absorbed in the matter at hand and unwilling or unable to move on to the next thing. The one who stares into space may be listening closely to something.
Granted, some people’s daydreaming and other SCT-associated symptoms prevent them from doing what they themselves want to do. But when it comes to diagnosing children, it is adults who decide whether there’s a problem. They might not see the rewards of daydreaming; they might only see the low grade on the homework assignment. “Why didn’t you start each paragraph with a topic sentence? Why do you have only one supporting detail here instead of two?” Wandering minds such as Mitty, Tristram Shandy, and many an actual person would get faulted, diagnosed, and fixed. The world would fill up with dreary essays that never departed from the rubric.
In Charlotte’s Web, Fern’s mother pays a visit to the family doctor, Dr. Dorian, in order to seek his advice about Fern, who, in her view, spends far too much time alone with the animals, just sitting and listening to them. Dr. Dorian leans back, closes his eyes, and says, “How enchanting!”
I do not mean to romanticize a serious condition–but I suspect that if SCT had been a diagnosis in Fern’s day, and if Dr. Dorian had not been so wise, Fern might well have ended up on medication.
Take Away the Takeaway 
NJ Teacher
/ April 17, 2014Sluggish Cognitive Tempo
This is brilliant! I have suffered from it for years. I am out of focus. Is there a cure?
Diana Senechal
/ April 17, 2014I don’t know… but I didn’t make up the term.
Henry Chamberlain
/ April 18, 2014If it wasn’t for the daydreamers of the world, this life would be a hell on Earth.
Susan
/ June 19, 2014Hi Diana
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your article.
I have just watched Walter Mitty for the first time (Ben Stiller version) and immediately thought he was showing signs of ADD. My 13 year old son was recently diagnosed with ADD. While I feel we now have an explanation for what was happening with him, I am torn between teaching him the organisational skills to stay on task and allowing his mind to wander enabling him to explore further the things that interest him. The problem as I see it is with schools who cannot deal with children who do not fall into the norm. Perhaps kids like mine are the people who can think outside of the box and come up with theories, ideas and solutions for the benefit of everyone. I agree that we are in danger of suffocating some potentially great thinkers.
You R. Anidiot
/ December 6, 2020Couldn’t bring yourself to watch the recent one? What is that about? This whole article is cheap crap. You really think that if they had diagnosed him with SCT, they would’ve had the proper medication for him? In the original movie? Not the recent version, where modern medicine would’ve been available, but the original version where there was sanitariums instead of proper mental healthcare. You know, the one you didn’t bother to watch. Jesus, get out of here dude. You missed the whole point of the story, my dude. This article is hot garbage. Get mad. Dummy.
Diana Senechal
/ December 6, 2020Well, I do not have to get out of here, because this is my blog. I did not have to approve your comment either, but it seemed representative of a general tendency in online conversation, so I took it to respond to it. You missed my point: that a world where daydreamers like Walter Mitty and Fern were “fixed” (whether properly or improperly) would be a world of poor imagination. Attention disorders do exist, but it’s essential not to make every deviation, every mind-wandering, a disorder.