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Mental Drift

Meaning

Mental Drift is the involuntary and passive phenomenon where an individual’s attention spontaneously shifts away from a primary, goal-directed task toward internal thoughts, distracting external stimuli, or generalized mind-wandering. This lapse in sustained focus and executive control results in reduced task efficiency, decreased cognitive throughput, and a subjective sense of mental fatigue or cloudiness. Persistent mental drift can often serve as an early indicator of chronic cognitive load, sub-optimal neurochemical balance, or systemic stress.