Why our sense of time speeds up as we age — and how to slow it down

I was actually going to do a different blog post today but came across this one as I was getting ready to write the other.

Today's blog post is based on an article from NBC News:

This perception of time moving at a leisurely pace in childhood, and then quickening as we become adults, is a common experience, neuroscientists note.

Part of the reason may be:

This perception may be due to a few factors, Kesari points out, firstly that when we're children, a year of life amounts to much more time of existence, percentage-wise.

“For a 10-year-old, one year is 10 percent of their lives,” Kesari says. “For a 60-year-old, one year is less than two percent of their lives.”

Additionally, when we are children, we are constantly being introduced to new things and ideas that leave lasting impressions on our memories.

Also.

It’s important to note that the type of time-perception we’ve been discussing thus far is retrospective perception. In other words, we’re talking about remembered time, rather than time as we are experiencing it in, well, real time.

But there is evidence that our perception of time as we are experiencing it is also slower when we are very young children.

“Children’s working memory, attention and executive function are all undergoing development at the neural circuit level,” says Patricia Costello, PhD, a neuroscientist and program director at Walden University. “Their neural transmission is in effect physically slower compared to adults. This in turn affects how they perceive the passage of time. By the time we are adults, our time circuits are done wiring and we have learned from experience how to correctly encode the passage of time.”

But is this always the case?

But there’s a way to change this — to an extent. Surely, we can’t slow time itself down (that would require defying the laws of physics), but we can do things to pace ourselves and create more lasting impressions of times past.

Costello draws attention to the Holiday Paradox, also called the Vacation Paradox, a theory of time-perception coined by psychology writer Claudia Hammond in her book “Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception.”

This theory unpacks the subjective experience of how time flies when you’re having an enjoyable, new experience like a vacation, but then later, in retrospection, it feels like it lasted longer than it really did.

We could spend a great deal of time (however you perceive it) discussing this theory, but here’s a helpful key takeaway: A novel experience may feel like it’s flying by, but you’ll have a deeper impression of that time and likely have a bundle of unique memories tied to it that will also give stretch and substance to that time gone by.

Have you ever felt that way?  I know I have! There were a few vacations that seemed to fly by, but when I look back on them they seem to have lasted longer.

It doesn’t have to be a vacation or a visit to a foreign country to elongate your sense of the past. It can be as simple as consistently trying something new, and/or of continuously learning.

“How can we stop that feeling of things going too fast, of missing out on our own lives? It comes back to learning new things,” says Costello. “Are you learning a new skill? Are you cooking something different? Introducing novelty into your life when you can will make the memories stand out and stretch time in a way.”

Here are some ways to achieve this "time warp":

Go to new places. Meet new people. Be spontaneous when you can be. These are all exercises that Costello champions for enhancing your sensitivity to the passage of time. It’s also a system that mirrors childhood to an extent.

“Children have routine and mundane moments, too, but they’re always learning something new,” she says.

And here's another:

Kesari suggests another potential retrospective-time enhancing hack: Remember your day as vividly as possible at the end of it.

“I suspect that if you spend half an hour every night really reflecting on what has happened that day, it may ingrain them to make them more unique,” says Kesari. “Memory is short-lived and many of us just aren’t that engaged in the everyday things we’re doing, so if you slow down and engage more in the moment, and look back on everything deeply later, you may find time lasting longer.”

So, continue learning and doing new things and spend some time at the end of the day reflecting on your day and you may find time slowing down for you!

Interesting days

Today - Make A Gift Day, Roof Over Your Head Day, Disability Day, Walt Disney Day and A Blue Christmas 

Tomorrow - Wear Brown Shoes Day, Dice Day, World Wildlife Conservation Day, Cab Franc Day, Cookie Day, International Cheetah Day and A Blue Christmas

Next Monday - Human Rights Day, Lager Day and A Blue Christmas

January 3 - Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day, Festival Of Sleep Day and Drinking Straw Day