I do daydream quite a lot and quite intensely. Often it gets to the point where I dissociate and zone out for up to a few hours. I always experience this but it might be more pronounced during episodes, I'm not sure, I've never paid attention to that. What I do know is that the themes are episode-related. The "daydreams" can be more like nightmares when I'm depressed/mixed.

Often my daydreams are like an alternative reality to me. I have whole conversations with people in my head, and I'm closer to people that I like but am unable to reach out to in real life. It can be painful to go back to the real world and realize that's all a fantasy.

It's interesting to see that many other people here have similar experiences. Next to my bipolar diagnosis I have "schizoid features" and depersonalization/derealization, so I always assumed the daydreaming was related to that.