How a clock measures time and how you perceive it are quite different. As we grow older, it can often feel like time goes by faster and faster. This speeding up of subjective time with age is well documented by psychologists, but there is no consensus on the cause. In a paper published this month, Professor Adrian Bejan presents an argument based on the physics of neural signal processing. He hypothesizes that, over time, the rate at which we process visual information slows down, and this is what makes time ‘speed up’ as we grow older.
As we age, he argues, the size and complexity of the networks of neurons in our brains increases – electrical signals must traverse greater distances and thus signal processing takes more time. Moreover, ageing causes our nerves to accumulate damage that provides resistance to the flow of electric signals, further slowing processing time. Focusing on visual perception, Bejan posits that slower processing times result in us perceiving fewer ‘frames-per-second’ – more actual time passes between the perception of each new mental image. This is what leads to time passing more rapidly.When we are young, each second of actual time is packed with many more mental images. Like a slow-motion camera that captures thousands of images per second, time appears to pass more slowly.
As he puts it: “People are often amazed at how much they remember from days that seemed to last forever in their youth. It’s not that their experiences were much deeper or more meaningful, it’s just that they were being processed in rapid fire.”
Bejan’s argument is intuitive and based on simple principles of physics and biology. As such, it is a compelling explanation for this common phenomenon. However, it is not the only explanation out there, and so a more rigorous experimental approach may be required before this mystery is solved for good.
Managing Correspondent: Rory Maizels
Original article: Why the Days Seem Shorter as We Get Older – European Review
Media coverage: It’s spring already? Physics explains why time flies as we age – Science Daily; Physics explains why time passes faster as you age – Quartz
Image Credit: Aron Visuals
I am 64 years old and have noticed how time seems to be flying by. As a result, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. I believe a good part of this has to do with perception. If my life span was 250 years long, I do not think that time would appear to be flying by.
That’s one of the reasons I never accept the theory that we are the some total of our experience, the Doctor is convinced humans are biologic computers and being human is much more than that! For instance all life down to the smallest virus contain information stored in the DNA, Doctor!
Us being a Biological computer is the much more, your thinking backwards my friend
I believe you meant “sum” and viruses aren’t alive
English grammar teacher
It’s a curse! I try to not correct people who butcher the language, but it dtive me crazy to see it. I suppose my lack of proficiency in math would drive others crazy if they were to have an opportunity to witness it, though.
Thats why God tells us who believe in him that he will be our Doctor when we have faith in him
God is created by man to use as a security blanket as they grow old to make them believe that they are safe with him and safe after they die. we have been wired up
this way at the time of the cave a lack of knowledge and lack of understanding pushed us to create a supreme being to be the answer to everything and then God burn-in those dark caves and entered in our DNA .
It’s a relative thing. Einstein theory. As we get older each year is a small er part of our life. When I was 10 each year was 1 tenth of my life. I’m now 67 each year 1 67th of my life
This is my opinion as well. It makes the most sense and I feel age relative to it’s perportion of my life.
its. It’s simple.
I don’t think it’s due to time comparatively to age. That would mean once in our 80’s a year would feel like days. Not feasible. I do believe that much like seasonal and climate cycles there’s a deeper understanding that we as humans will never understand. Also there’s the watched pot theory going on as well. As children we cant wait for the next step in our timeline. Progression in school. Age to drive. Age to legaly vote , drink, move out of parents home etc. Once we are in our 30’s there aren’t many major life changes to have the cant wait til I am there anticipation. Once you stop watching the clock time seems to blur and become repetitive. After 40 we only have death on the distant horizon to watch out for and we want the clock to slow down. In short, we cant wait for time to pass in youth but once adults we understand time is finite and want it to slow down. Just a matter of perception.
I agree… I have often thought your brain is a collection of all of YOUR experiences so if you are 4, you have had 4 birthdays, 4 Christmas’s, 4 summers etc. so everything you have collected in your brain related to time is divided by those events. The duration until the next summer is 1/4 of your total time memory.
At 24? it is 1/24 of your total time memory so you start looking for a new swimsuit in April..
At 84? Well, if you are still counting… it takes a load more time memory dividing than 4. On the plus side you probably wouldn’t be caught dead in a swimsuit! No worries!!!
😳
I used to think that for a long time, but an alternative just popped into mind that I suspect is actually what is happening. A child sleeps in such a manner that each morning when it wakes up it is like a new being. As we age this capacity for sleep to complete dissolve our feeling of the past fades and as it fades, like an old coat we start to grow as we age which more and more highlights our life as a continuum.
It is almost impossible for person as an adult to experience how they slept as a child, or the degree to which sleep cleaned out automated processes from which we derive our sense of the passage of time. But under certain unusual but natural conditions it can happen. But its possible there is a reason why it biologically happens like this. As we age responsibilities arise that would make the sort of sleep a very young child has impractical.
What in the world does all that mean about SLEEP as a child???
What does ir have to do with time speeding up??
Very well said. Thank you.
That’s a wonderful explanation.
I too feel so.
” Every day is the first day of the rest of your life . ”
I am reassured that intelligent life still exists in the universe after reading this article and the great insights that come about …MAY your journey be blessed.
I believe that the youthful amazement at life itself, gives a child an innate sense of thrill just for the fact that one is alive. Observe a toddler or a newborn baby interacting with the world for the first time even if it’s just with their eyes. And then you can see the literal excitement when a young child wonders everything and is genuinely beyond just happy to be alive! And I believe because I know and trust my Lord and maker, that that we were close to God. Like literally in his hands. And deposited in the womb by his majesty. And I believe that’s where the word magistrate and Majesty and so forth comes from I believe it’s the root word for magic. And a child knows this that they are so lucky to have an opportunity at life that it’s not even luck that they are so blessed! And from what I noticed, older people are tired, they put up with a lot, they probably put up with more than they compare and a lot of them don’t even desire to live anymore and some of them wish they could usher in their deaths faster. And something important to note. Because when you’re trying to determine why everyone seems to feel or say that time is going by faster, or that it goes faster when you age, this is something to think about, and the awe is because of The child being in God’s hand so the child is confident the child is pure and time goes by slower, because of that closeness to God. And even though old people who suffer a lot of them cannot wait to die, neither can they remember their former selves when they were a young child or a baby, and they were afraid of death. Perhaps they dealt with it their whole life. Perhaps they’re so broken that they don’t even have a fear of death anymore. There’s the difference in the mentality with regards to once outlook on life. Do you appreciate the life that you were given? And if so are you a believer? And if so do you have a desire to live that’s greater than your tolerance for said pain? Even if you don’t, if you’re willing to tolerate the scripture in Mark that says that we are persecuted for his name’s sake. So -we already know that from the get-go were a target. We know all of these things innately I think we’ve just lost our enthusiasm and therein lies the factor that if you were not enjoying life perhaps it will fly by. But if you’re in wonder, and you’re in awe, and you’re interested in life and you enjoy life, and you’re willing to suffer even if that need to be the case, because you love your life that much? Well, I say that that’s one of the biggest questions, because, we should suffer it. Like Jamie Lee Curtis said, pay attention now! Because this isn’t going to happen again. So I think the subtle factor with regards to life speeding up or perhaps slowing down being related to life itself, the factor where it seems to speed up towards the end, is that we are becoming bored and unenthused with life. So if you don’t have a desire for life or you let it fly by you, You’re going to miss the bus. You’re going to miss the only bus.
ohh that is a good one, I think you’re on to something! I often think about this topic and have read many theories. I like this one, first time I’ve come across it. Hmmm, perhaps its an ALL OF THE ABOVE phenomena!
Interesting theory to ponder. One of the more compelling.
I like this explanation, it aligns with what I was told by a psychologist many years ago. Simply put, we obviously have a limited amount of memories to pull and reflect on, and they obviously accumulate, very slowly. So as we age, we have more memories to reflect on, thus giving the perception of time to go faster and faster. Slow and steady reality when we are new to the world. And as our memories become more similar and not that different since we are creatures of habit and our memories begin to overlap, time feels like it is going faster.
Just recently I’ve noticed how fast the week goes by especially by Tuesdays. Why Tuesdays speed into the end of the week when time slows a bit.
It is hard to believe it was almost a year ago the riot at the US Capital happened too.
Maybe as we slow our physical lives down we sense a greater change in time—we can experience more from our past lives of memories too. All things are connected so to our senses of sight, sound, touch, etc.
Who really cares
Just enjoy each and every day .
wow……………………
I agree with H. Just enjoy each and every day. The rest of the story is utter nonsense! I’m 68, I’m not a believer in religion, but I have a good sense of self and a healthy respect for LIFE…in all its manifestations! I’m not bored, tired, or in so much pain that I’m ready to die! Yet…life still seems like it’s accelerating. So I guess that blows the above theory out the water! No need to suffer in any capacity! Just go within…you’ll find everything you need there!
Beautiful and clear
This is so interesting! Thanks for giving us your insight!
Ah this explanation makes most sense to me!
i have aids i have aids i have aids i have aids
Okay so what does having aids have to do with time speeding up as we age?
So you have the Ability Increase Day Speed? 👌😮Good for you Pumpkin. 😉
I know you’ll probably never see this, but that is hilarious dude, no one got your joke in the comments and i literally just saw it 2 years later 😭
That’s it. Perception of time is inversely proportional to age . It is relative like how things appear to get smaller as you grow taller. I can’t actually recall growing but can remember clothes being too small and the enormous teddy being quite small.
I agree it seems there’s a lot of things mentioned here to take into account! I think I likely to be a mixture of things mentioned here. Thought I’d put this here as I enjoyed reading this: Although not suggested as a valid reason, I too used to wonder about a lot but as a teenager. I became convinced that we were getting a little closer to the sun each year, like how water goes down a plug hole. I even suggested it to my science teacher! 🙂
I think you’re right! I’ve been thinking the same thing even while I was reading this article! I’ve been thinking that for a long time you know some impending doom is coming and wondering what it is and I just think our governments are lying to us and it’s ridiculous because we have a right to know if our planet is going to perish for something that they know about. It should be disclosed even though they may prejudice us and say oh the world would freak out! No the world is absolutely freaked out anyways. We deserve to know and to die the way we want to if that’s what happens we need to prepare because personally I don’t want to be scorched to death I’ve already survived after an out of body experience when I died in a fire burning both my arms my back and my leg & rolling out so I really don’t want to do that again. Honestly I’d rather stab myself in the neck than die from fire. I pray somebody affords me the chance to if we’re going to collide with the Sun. Think about it perhaps other planets have in line with ours perhaps there were other planets before us but they’ve already crashed into the sun steadily taking place of one another with the Earth’s magnetic pull. I mean it makes sense because the moon comes closer to our Earth and so we have a centrifugal force and some element of energy the interacts and yeah I think we’re headed for the sun. And I think that’s why we’re seeming to be speeding up because our days are getting shorter so that must mean we’re getting closer to the Sun! Well by gosh I think we figured it out! This is really crap.. The Mayans had it right I just wish we knew when this was going to go down because I’d rather exit off another platform if you know what I mean…
wow that’s a fascinating reality and theory
Maybe it’s just the total amount of time speeding up, in the same way the total amount of space is getting bigger: the closer we are to the end of time and space, the faster it goes.
I think when we are young, we have many things and events to wait for. But as long as we grow, we have few events or dreams. The more we have to wait for, the longer the time seems to be.
Good idea! Excellent thought!
That is exactly the rational I was told once. It makes sense to me for this to be the most logical. Very interesting conversation piece. One of those things in life we will just have to form our own individual opinions as to why this is a common feeling when it relates to age.
I AM 81 YEARS YOUNG WITH SOME HEALTH ISSUES THAT I PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO..TIMES DOES SEEM TO FLY..I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS YOUNGER TIME WAS NOT A FACTOR I TRY TO USE THIS CONCEPT TO ENJOY LIFE EACH AND EVERY DAY..THANKS FOR LISTENING
Okay thanks but im67 feel older and wiser
This seems to make more sense then the argument presented in the article.
that’s brilliant; never thought of it this way.
Agreed this is exactly how I feel. I’m thinking there is a name for this ???
And when you were 4 each hour was 0.0028% of your life. But 0.0028% of 67 years is 2 months!
These are all amazing thoughts, i can relate 2 alot of them but still cannot help but think that there is more 2 time going this fast since 2019,
I acknowledge that its been going relatively fast previously but now its on a different level,you can have your good 7-8 hour sleep but still feel like you only slept for 2 hours,that’s how fast time flies…i thought i was alone until alot of ppl talked about it and i get to observe how 89% of the people in the public transport/bus i am using is sleeping on route to work and on route home every single day,of complete exhaustion,fatigue…which is because time is going relatively fast and your mind and body can not keep up with the past,which causes the above,the individual is also drained because the time going so fast,which is draining core parts of the spirit and can cause memory gaps/open spaces accure because you not able to be present you moving on a past that is hard for our minds to adapt 2…
Yeah, since 2019 something has happened. The younger people I’m around are saying the same thing. Time has changed. The feeling of life has changed. It feels like we flipped into some dark weird reality. Nothing feels the same including the passage of time.
I know this is long but it’s worth your time! I’ll be 55 soon and SERIOUSLY thought i was 53. for 2 years. I was married 28 when my husband divorced me and suddenly there were so many things to process and do. I’m suggesting perhaps it’s a combination of mini series. As time goes by and we age we mostly look forward to things in the future. As a young child the experiences like every day we have dinner, the sun goes down, and we celebrate events every year. Then we begin using the those repetitive experiences in our own and count days until schools out, summer vacation and your birthday. People in their 30’s are considered old people. As we mature we shift priorities, how many years until I can … drive, date, drink and actually WANT to work. Responsibilities begin to stack up and time starts to be more important and seems there’s just never enough time, and what once was important can be done later. We celebrate yearly events less frequently like family or class reunions and anniversary’s. Birthdays are labeled by decades, 20’s, 30’s etc. There’s a time we try to ignore time. Forget birthdays all together. We feel young, mid-life crisis is what everyone else is in, and old people are in their 80’s or 90’s! We fight time off, eat better, get exersise and try anti-aging products. Remember the day we broke our arm in 5th grade but have no idea why i went into a the kitchen. I suppose it’s time menopause? Hot flashes of the past, present & future? Heard the phrase “only time will tell” ? We aren’t capable of knowing how long time really and need to enjoy time, ni matter the speed! So stop counting the time and let the time count.
You’re right! And it’s like that old saying, ” A watched pot won’t boil.”
I believe that the simple reality is, as you get older, your ability to store the memories of that particular time are compromised. Therefore your brain perceives this as a shorter event period and thus a greater time frame has elapsed versus average memory volume recorded.
Wow! You won the internet tonight! Lol I’m blown away because your answer makes so much sense because if the folds in the brain and the storage for memory, essentially the neurons in the brain, if they’re more of them then there they are more accessible because they’re shorter distance away because obviously your brain had to put them somewhere… And if it’s all in one can find space such as the skull, and the adult brain is not getting any bigger, one would be led to believe that this is true. The memories are greater, so they are stored closer, therefore they’re more rapidly accessible!
Actually, you do grow brain cells as an adult. Certain drugs can stimulate that. But the more information there is in a database, the more slowly it will access or store information.
“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
Einstein
Nice. That’s freaking hilarious and it’s coined by Einstein! I love it! And it’s so true!
I feel like it’s technology that is making time feel fast we get caught up on it and entranced and then look at the clock and 2-3 hrs have gone by . Or even bing watching tv shows no as we do we go from Netflix to other shows what’s series that are a 1 hr long and onto the next one and then bang it’s 2-3 in the morning .
I believe God is telling us we don’t have much time, to get our life right with Him…🙏🛐✝️ Something to think about!
That could be the case I hope.
As a kid days seemed much longer.
Now weeks, months, years seem to fly by.
In Matthew 24 v 22, it says about the end times that ‘, If those days had not been cut short then there would be no-one left alive…’ speaking about the troubling time during the Tribulation. It’s possible that as those times are getting closer we gradually perceive the shortening of time.
Wow just that simple.👍
Time …the universe was expanding at a certain speed the second your born, but the older you get the faster the universe expands time is actually moving faster for you as you age. Just imagine any matter in the universe traveling away from the big bang……its moving away faster expanding with the universe as are you. Correct me if I’m wrong
Provided you only live to 100!
Einstein’s theory has nothing to do with with the perception of time.
You are correct. Relative and Relativity are 2 different things.
That is what I have always believed. It makes total sense to me.
Yes, your explanation seems the most plausable. Einstein knew a thing or two.
Sounds about right. But, being 65 I don’t think very quick.
It is because….time is running out, unlike when we were all 14 and had unlimited time.
Now our minutes are nearly used up, and as Warren Zevon said,
“my sh*t is f*cked up.”
As we get older we forget so much during the course of a year that Xmas seems to come round every few months. However, when we concentrate on what interests us such as my observing my many grandchildren growing up they seem to have been small little adults for millennia with squeaky voices growing only slowly. That’s because I pay them so much attention fascinated by their lives and remembering far more about them and because I make more effort to concentrate. So, for me, day to day life fly’s by but not if you focus on all the events of a subject. Hope that makes sense!
Richard Cripps
They the eyes of a child. I remember when 6th grade seemed a long way off. But soon I was in high school and then married and having children. Then the children ask way Christmas and birthdays were so far in the distance. As we get older we developed more patience about things. My grand daughter is in high school. Sure. Where did all 66 years go so fast. 6th grade now seems unimportant. But to a first grader it seems a long way off!! Perception!!.. when will I be 90??
I agree with this in so far as I have commented, in a slightly different way!
It’s awesome to hear someone that listens to Warren Zevon. Love that song.
This is my favourite comment. Time felt more unlimited when I was 14.
I too have thought that time perception is biological aging. Like a car starting out on a hill, at birth and through childhood, time moves slowly until we reach the top, middle age or just before. Then, as we pass “ over the hill”, just like that car we begin to speed towards death and time seems to speed up as well. It seems to me to be tied to our biological growth and subsequent deterioration. Time perception ruled at a cellular level.
Wow, that is a pretty awesome explanation. Probably the best one I read. Im sitting here at work and this thought came into my head so I had to look into it and after reading so many comments, this is by far the best one.
I agree with you!
I also agree thank you I think Im satisfied with your explanation. I wish we never deteriorated or at least stopped at about 30. Theres not enough time so many never get to do the things they want to do in life. Makes me very sad I need more time Im not done yet.
That’s a good theory.
Being young, we are always looking forward to certain things. Because they were special occasions for us then.
But once grown n basically doing same thing for years on end, not much to look forward to.
Christmas seems to come every few months now, as a kid it seemed like forever until next Christmas.
As kids Christmas was the best day of the year, as adults ( most of us) it’s just another time we need to try and find a bunch of gifts that we hope they like.
Buying gifts for kids is easy, adults, not so much, if adults want something they just buy it themselves
The analogy is perfect for how it feels! I am not certain it is the “why.”
Perfect metaphor, Tom! It helped me process what’s been said here on this platform. Good job!
I agree ! Excellent point
I’m 64 as well, but I also observe personally that time seems to slow when I have many tasks during the day, particularly if I’m absorbed in the tasks. But as I age I’m less involved in tasks and feel like time is elapsing quickly. Just wondering if not being as active, physically and/or mentally is more of the condition leading to these observations.
I totally agree with having fewer ‘tasks’, especially since I retired. On the busy days, time goes slower than on the less busy. When I was working, 5:00 took forever to arrive. Therefore I’ve decided I must have a daily schedule to help slow time down! I’m hoping it does the trick.
I discovered this also!
I think so. When you feel content and focused time appears to be different. Its how we think, we’re programmed! When we change our thinking by re-wiring, we change our perception. I’m 67 and by re-wiring my old programming, I’m feeling younger daily. So I guess I’m saying, I feel like I have another 67 years left, lol!
I think we are trying to
comprehend and explain a more serious problem from a mere humanistic perspective. I am 58 years old and in my mines eye…can recall my earliest childhood vividly… My whole life is just a blur…. But to the point…35 years ago a man said..in these last days (time will catch up with time). I thought ? What the heck does that mean. Like and hour glass runs out of time…we are running (out of time) those who have ears can hear…you have to use something more than just your peanut brain…no matter how many degrees you have…you can have 32 degrees and still be brain dead… Yeah (time is speeding up on purpose with a purpose.this is a very strange world we live in…so strange that one day soon ??? Ok Let’s say when the play write shows up on stage the play is over…can’t wait to see what hes got going the other side lolol its a beautiful world…people are amazing….but there is so much more.
I thought Richard. P. Cripps post dated August 23rd above expressed your sentiments beautifully. It gave me pause to ponder. I do believe he (and you!) may be on to a technique we oldsters can actually use to slow down the acceleration of passing time…if we wish. Now that is worth a study!
I agree. Also, when you’re younger, a year, for example is a larger percentage of the time you’ve been alive. As we age, a year becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of the time we’ve been alive, so it seems to go by faster as a result. That’s how I look at it anyway. All relative 🙂
Hi Robbin,
Hope all is well. Time flies. I was in high school just a few years ago. The sadness of time’s speed brought me here. Hope you are well.
I thought Richard. P. Cripps post dated August 23rd above expressed your sentiments beautifully. It gave me pause to ponder. I do believe he (and you!) may be on to a technique we oldsters can actually use to slow down the acceleration of passing time…if we wish. Now that is worth a study!
Hi everyone, I am new to this site. This is a very interesting conversation. Here is my “two cents worth” I am 80 yrs old now and beginning to have some symptoms of forgetfulness. I love living, love my family, and love God, not necessarily in that order. In conversations with family members like my sister and brother, I remember things about our family when we were all young. Our father died at 37yrs old of esophageal cancer, and our mother had a rare skin disorder. We lived in a low price house district in Wichita Falls, Texas. She was on Social Security and a small salary from the movie theatre where she was a cashier. She managed to feed and clothe us with little money. She had a rare blood disease that caused sores on her legs, so she would wear a pair of support hose to cover her bandaged legs. She always looked nice and was pleasant to be around. She was 47 when she died. I have lived much longer than she did. Have I done it as well? I just hope to be as strong as she was before I die. My husband is gone too, but I have wonderful children who help me and a few close friends that I love. Be thankful for every day, be kind and helpful, and appreciate every breath, knowing that God gives it and knowing HIM is the best thing that can ever happen to a person. Living in America is a gift to treasure, take care of, and be thankful for. I know this isn’t really on the tenor of the conversation, but it’s my “two cents worth” Be Blessed.
Edna, thank you for sharing! You are so wise, and I appreciate your wisdom.
Hi EDNA, You write very well for 80 congratulations.
I have admired your thoughts. I am 59 years old from Mississauga, Canada !!
Cheers,
Paul
Thank you. Liked your post. I was born 78yrs ago in Oklahoma. My Daddy passed away when I was 8 yrs.old. My sister and brother were 7- 5 yrs old. They don’t remember much. Our mother was 29 yrs old .She raised kids working sometimes 3 jobs. What a STRONG woman!
Bless you also.
I’m 62. I agree. I think it would eventually seem to start passing faster, just probably much later, like when you’re 210-220 vs 50-60 as we experience.
Though I generally agree with the consensus that time passes faster with age, I did notice three situations when time really slowed down even after 50.
Travelling and taking psychedelics would cause me to go off autopilot and live in the moment. My senses were amplified. I was meeting new people and experiencing novel smells, sounds, and sights.
The brain is far more active on Acid. In many ways it was like becoming a curious fun-loving child again. Music was especially fascinating and intricate. Emotions were amplified.
The third situation occurred back during the first lockdown of the pandemic . We were just living day to day. I had no schedule and was daydreaming constantly. Time slowed back down similarly to being nine.
I‘ve often wondered if time might slow down again during one’s nineties, as each remaining year would again become a larger proportion of one’s remaining existence.
Simply put, because “time is running out.” When we are young, we have all the time in the world and we unconsciously think we are going to live forever. However, when we hit a certain age (for me 70), we become very conscious that “time is running out” and we are “speeding toward death.” Our desire to “hold onto life” and “slow the passage of time” makes time go faster, i.e., when I was young, I wanted time to go faster (I wanted to be older); however, as I age, I want to time to slow down because I don’t want to get older. My 2 cents!
The distance between the Moon and the Earth affect the speed of the Earths rotation due to magnetic friction. The moon is in a different spot in the sky everyday, the closer the moon is one day the more magnetic friction slows the Earths rotation and a longer day is had. Another day the moon is in a different spot a bit further away, now the Earths rotation picks up speed a bit and a shorter day is had. That’s my intuitive thought anyways.
I have one question, is there a way to make our quick perception of time feel slower and more meaningful. Weeks and months melt together not that I’m older. I remember when I was in elementary school just relaxing at home how slow minutes and hours. Now hours feel like seconds. When I try and think back to my childhood years I think of how I tried and fill every minute with something memorable. Not thinking even a second into the future, just living in the present. Now I feel as though I’m only living in the future. Constantly thinking about whats next to come in my schedule rather than really embracing every minute and making it memorable, as I did when I felt free.
I agree, I think it’s all about perception.
When you’re 20 years old, and you can remember back 16 or 17 years at best, that’s a lifetime. And then to consider from that point in time, for what you assume it’s surely going to seem like, for how long a time it’s going to take to reach a future age, several decades into the future, or a life time, reaching 80+ years.
And then we have no choice but to base the answer to that question, purely on what our experience has been for how long it seems to have taken to reach our present age. But we slowly discover as the years pass that it doesn’t work that way, and our perception of not only age and time, but our perception for numbers in general, for whatever they’re representing, keeps changing, so that everything is relative to something else.
If that makes sense, because it’s difficult to explain, other than saying perhaps, what we once thought was old, doesn’t seem to be keep quite as old as we once thought, or what we once considered a lot of money, or a high interest rate, a high price or a high whatever, is fluid and keeps changing relative to something else.
And so I believe you’re right, and if a life time wasn’t 80+ years, but was several or many hundreds of years, our perception of time would be completely changed compared to how we see it now, and it would be back to being very slow again, like when we were children, even if we were 200 years old.
No matter whose explanation I receive, the idea of time flying by as I get older is something i still don’t understand. But yes, to me, Friday to Friday, now…..? It’s
a blur……..
😂😂😂 you’ve got me in stitches, Robin! I’m 52, and I totally agree!
My theory on time and why it’s off, that every time we break thru to outer space ,rockets, satellites, and whatever else we send out there, it’s speeds up or slows down the rotation of the Earth, look at it like this you put a pin hole in a balloon what happens, same theory here. Since we don’t use sun dails to tell time anymore no one would notice cause all clocks run system not on the sun, the earth slowing down or speeding up can make major changes on time
The reason isn’t scientific, it’s mathematic.
If you think about it, your first day of life, meaning your first 24 hours,was your entire life to that point. So, the second 24 hours would feel half as long because it’s added ro the first 24.,so the second day of your life feels shorter than the first.
We add on days throughout our lives, and now at age 42,a feel like 24 hours lasts significantly less than it used to…
But I also question, if it is only the perception of the of the last 50 years or so, because my grandmother moves at the pace of a snail and still gets more done in a day than most People i know.
Until you were 210, sadly.
I think that repetition is also a big influence on time speeding up and just flying past us. I am 16 right now, I have just finished this school year eventhough I feel like it has not even begun. Every school day is the same and it repeads itselves over and over again. Just like covid, I did not do anything except for staying at home and just like that three years passed. Also all the time I have spend on social media is just so time consuming, a day without socials just brings so much more “time awareness” ( I do not know how to put it).
great minds think alike,,,i am 66 and feel the same way,,my take on it is simple,,,were nearing the end of our life,,we have less time left,,so it only makes sense that it goes faster,,heres something to think about,,when the needle on a record player is near the end of the record does it go faster,,im not sure,,but i bet it does…
I am having the same current problem. I have resolved that it has to do with less and less on my mind. When I was younger(I am 41 now) I had more problems to resolve and some things that were unsolvable. I believe now that I am older and these problems are gone that time seems to just pass a day at a time. I’ve gone into how time should be kept by units of 100 seconds and 100 minutes per hour. In essence I started breaking down how time would be slower if I kept in mind a day was only 14 hours. But no one would do that. I have little to nothing on my mind and I do very little. What about those who do a lot? I don’t know for them, but what I do know is I don’t. It is my belief that having solved the major issues in life that I have no issue, and therefore no time. I have never seen this and I think it may be hard to prove because many would say they do a lot or would be embarrassed to say they have nothing on their mind. But for me it solved, Nothing on the mind equals time going faster. I don’t know why, but some people recommend doing nothing. I find this a bad solve but good for those who wish to feel freer with time. I almost have made effort to make a poem or song about it that people need to get busy doing things and with each other. It seems sweet that you do more with your spouse for the reason that as people get older it seems people do less. Frankly, that whole notion scares me because it is natural. Do more things together, weather with a friend or spouse. It just be a song to motivate people to do more together. Perhaps recall and share. Though time can pass fast when people are talking and getting along as well. Who knows, maybe we are the sum of it all and when things have already happened to you we can’t go back to what we knew. I hope things slow down for you, I’m scared and I’m only 41.
All i want to say that my elementary school lasted forever, as well as days in a high school. Times began to fly when in a college.
Why does time goes faster as we get older? That’s a crazy idea.
Guys, let’s be real. Ultimately there’s no such thing as a time machine. In other words, it is what it is. Time is goin by quick because we wasting time thinking about why time goes by quick. Live in the moment, it’s yours. In the meantime, take me back to Love Machine.
Y. E. S.
Agree. Your as young as you feel!@
lol, your funny!
Time goes faster because ,when you are younger time goes slow because you have a lot less to think about ,
As you age you have more to think about ie work,family ,finance , etc so the old adage is when your busy time flows faster does that make sense !!
You make more sense than the professor!
Thank you! This seems quite easy, But again…its perception! Some here say that time goes slower when they are more active…I cant understand how that is possible…oh well…
It’s like the commercial “when a body is in motion, it stay’s in motion “ I guess! When I’m more present and focused my time slows also.
Wait until you’re 70. Your opinion might just change.
Wait till you’re 80 plus. I’m trying too hard to do well at not trying too hard to do well. Say that 3 times fast, if there’s time. (smile)
an Octogenarian
i have one question for you ma’am
is that true my running speed increase when i grow
which age is good to get fast speed
Austin Feinberg – time doesn’t go faster. Our perception of time makes it appear to go faster. I have a lot more to think about these days so I don’t spend as much time observing and enjoying, as I used to.
PERCEPTION IS REALITY. Dr Phil says it all the time.
Death and a Black Hole have common traits. Time moves faster as we get nearer our time of death. Just as an object gets nearer a Black Hole the faster it travels. Death is the non-existence of time as is the object that travels into a Black Hole approaching non-existence.
I have used the whirlpool as an analogy since I started perceiving time speeding up about 10 years ago in my mid-40’s. When I was young we are on the outer parts of the whirlpool, but as I get older I move closer and closer, time moves faster and faster until I reach the middle at the end of life. And thennnn…..?
and Theeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…………………..you go back home to your
Heavenly Father where you came from and, continue growing as a person. You are his child. If you have questions, please read at LDS.org,
Great answer!
I absolutely love this!!! Thank you !! I was looking for a Christian to talk about forever We all have been sent here on a mission time has no rank over this mission Time is never ending in Heaven in this world it’s simply an essence that dictates our memory . Everyone so busy tryin to find a happy life . Happy like any other emotion is for the moment . That’s all any of us get . Those moments that take your breath away LIVE THEM FOR ALL THEY ARE WORTH
Geeze..I thought I was depressed before…..I take it you’re an Atheist….
I am 20 and my birthday is in 3 months time, more and more it feels like days turn into weeks and months just fly by. My 20th b day seems like it was about 5 months ago. Depressing me big time
I am 14 and already thinking about this wich causes me anxiety and difficulty to sleep so like i’d like to know if theres a way to fix this issue.
Me too. Let me know if you find anything.
There’s hope.
While listening to a podcast about Frank Ocean’s song “Skyline To” a very academic Cole Chuchna explains that a scientific study suggests that in our youth, time seems to pass slowly because it is chock full of new experiences, which the brain marks with importance. This makes youth feel longer. As we age and settle into schedules, our experiences blend together and become the same, making time seem to move faster than before. My opinion? Be curious for new experiences with ravenous hunger.
My thoughts exactly, Azwaw.
You have anxiety and difficulty sleeping because your mind is obsessed with these spalling thoughts. My mind was in turmoil when I was a teenager.
The perception of time is like riding a sleigh off a snow covered mountain. The sleigh picks up speed as it descends. It’s the same way with I us
As we get older time seems to speed up. It’s been my experience and approaching my eighty sixth birthday it’s like riding a rocket. The years are whizzing by and it seems like only yesterday that I was just fourteen!
I suggest learning to live in the eternal NOW and accepting the things you cannot change. Decide who you are and what your mission is during your brief journey on spaceship earth. Be grateful for each day because it is a Present.
Peace and Blessings Always remember that God loves you!
I liked what you just said!!!!
Amen! “Live in the Eternal now!” I completely agree! your days here on earth are so very precious. So enjoy the time you have without worry of time. Enjoy your life! its a gift! Take chances, tell the people you love, that you love them! take that trip! go on that adventure! ask for that promotion! ask her or him out! instead of worrying about time, think of all the things you can still do, and don’t hesitate to do them!
And yes God loves you! Don’t ever forget that!
Love you all!
Bless you Thank you for your wise and beautiful thoughts and input
Thanks Timothy. Your refreshing outlook and advice is well received.
Thank you so much, that was well said.
How does one learn to live in the now sir. I don’t know if I can learn that at this point. I believe in God Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Why am I always crying I want to be happy, grow a garden, have a home with pets and people,family and friends, cookouts and back yard party’s. Trips to exotic places for 2 weeks out of the year or camping at the lake or the mountains. I want to ride a zip line and fly my own personal bicycle. There’s no more time. I’ve wasted so much time. Im sorry Im just scared anymore all the time
Thanks for listening. Peace
Don’t worry about it. Spend time enjoying every day and make sure to appreciate all the good things and people in your life. That’s the most important thing. That we enjoy the journey. The fact that you are already thinking about this means that you are very special.
They’re all gone.
I’m 25 and time is moving by faster every year. Life is short. I might be 25 now but soon I’ll be like 70 in a blink of an eye. As you get older, you experience less new things. Society forces you into this path, because you have to work. It becomes monotonous. There are also biological reasons that cause time to pass faster. There’s nothing you can do except keep doing things you like. Have no regrets when you get old.
Just stop thinking about it so much. Relax and enjoy life. Don’t intend to sound so cliche but you are still a youngster. Wait till your in your 60s and older. You think time is flying by now? I did same thing. Just relax😀
Time slows down when we lose technology. Think about the last time the power went out. What did you do? How long did the hours seem? I have been putting my phone away as much as i can for this reason.
Monotony is another reason time seems to speed away from us. If you’re doing the same things every day there isn’t much to remember.
Lose your screens and go make some memories. It will help, with both time and with general happiness.
You need to learn and practice mindfulness techniques! You also need to try new experiences and balance your life with self care, creativity, and work. You are anxious and feeling empty because you are missing something bigger, outside of yourself. A higher power. I recommend starting with a Unitarian Church. They expose you to all religions, allowing you to make a connections and meet your Savior.
Same, man. The saddest part for me is probably the realization that time is flying by so fast. My dad is almost turning fifty and I regret that I couldn’t spend more valuable time with him when he was in his early-mid 40s. Now I just wish that he had me earlier so we’d be able to spend more time together.
Wait until your dad is over 70 while having the knowledge that time is finite as a person’s odds of mortal survival decrease mathematically each year of aging. Hope to celebrate his 80th, 85th, 90th, and so on, but I’m given no guarantee.
I live with a certain amount of dread on this as an only child with no other close family members except for my significant other.
Don’t worry we are all just a perspective of the universe. The universe experiencing itself. We have connected consciousness. Different currents of consciousness from the same pool. Experiencing life as a different perspective in different times. So in essence if we share consciousness and come from the same consciousness. We never die. We are literally each other.
No, what is depressing is my friend who died from Cancer at the age of 23. In your 20’s have balance. Have 3 hobbies. One that makes you money, one that you enjoy and let’s you be creative, and one that keeps you fit and healthy. Practice mindfulness, travel, save your money, and Practice mindfulness – a 39 year old.
Part of the experience is possibly the lack of novelty and the deterioration of comprehension. The inability to fully absorb oneself into events so that they subjectively integrate more slowly so that Comprehenion and reality are out of phase.
Interesting it is moving faster with in the confines of the wall clock ……seems impossible but it is…..it’s not in our head………..or it’s moving quicker
Well , contrary to what others think about age and time my theory is each year must actually get faster as the universe accelerates everything within the universe accelerates at the same speed including time , good grief it’s tea time already
I believe what you say. The universe is accelerating. Making time faster. it’s nothing to do with old age. Many young people I talk to , often say isn’t time going fast.it’s the evolution of life.
Utter nonsense. Time move more slowly as things accelerate more. It’s part and parcel of the general theory of relativity.
Absolutely a goal, now to obtain control over aging (with out surgical procedures) will be my challenge.
Alan Byron, we as children find everything so fascinating and everything is new to us! As we get older we become “adults” and that is what destroys our curiosity I guess and perhaps school and society in general, the media trains us to become part of the herd. We need to become children again, meaning to be in awe of new things.
Would you please explain this further? This is so interesting!
Don’t not let these things play with your mind enjoy each moment . I had a crazy experience with playing golf for the First time when I was 40 and now I am 41 .
So the first few times I played golf time moved very slow but as I started playing more often time speed up again. So it’s the new experience as some of u have said
The speed of time is dependent on the processing of data from the environment…as we age less changes so we process the environment with less data… less data less time to process it… less time spent in 3D reality where time is experienced
I don’t think it already happens to me because of my age, but im forgetting more and more along the time. Im 16 and a day feels like a week. I also don’t remember a lot from a couple years ago
My theory is that it is about percentages: when we are young each additional year is a large per of our life (ie from 5 to 6 is 20% of our life). As we get older each year is a smaller and smaller percentage. ( ie 50 to 51 is only an additional 2%). I think that we feel percentage changes more than the absolute change.
I’ve thought about that. It’s kind of depressing to think that the time from 20 to 40 seems the same as 40 to death
About time (sic!) that someone cited this obvious fact! Thank you!
I think when we are young and can’t Waite until our birthdays to get here that will make us an age that we wish to be for one reason or another , it’s just like waiting in a long line when we are growing up. After we grow up we realize how everything is passing us by and how wonderful it was when we were younger.
so my theory is that time goes faster as we get older because when we die w dont know if would turn into ghost plus time can be a ghost going through time faster anf faster if u think about it its an additional 50% of life
its sad…
ok my theory is as we grow older , it can often feel like time goes faster and faster…. focusing on visual perception, Bejan posits slower processing times result in us perceving fewer frames per second more actual time passes between the perception of each new mental image. This leads to time passing more rapidly
Simpler answer…… When you are 10 years old 1 year is 1 tenth of you
existence. When you are 50 year old it’s 1 fiftieth of you existence. So
going from 10 years old to 11 – is the same as going from 50 year old to 55.
Living 1/10 more of your existence.
my brother reminds me of this every year on my birthday.
i don’t buy this “image processing” thing.
It’s all about how you remember things. If I think about the birth of my daughter 6 years ago in relation to celebrating her birthday it seems like time has just skipped in a flash. But then if you think about all the other things in between like first time walking, learning to ride a bike, first day of school, etc. it makes the day of her birth feel further away.
This article kind of help me have hope that I have time still. That I am not going to go to sleep one day at 40 and wake up at 80.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/15/time-warped-claudia-hammond/
“The problem with the proportionality theory is that it fails to account for the way we experience time at any one moment. We don’t judge one day in the context of our whole lives. If we did, then for a 40-year-old every single day should flash by because it is less than one fourteen-thousandth of the life they’ve had so far. It should be fleeting and inconsequential, yet if you have nothing to do or an enforced wait at an airport for example, a day at 40 can still feel long and boring and surely longer than a fun day at the seaside packed with adventure for a child. … It ignores attention and emotion, which … can have a considerable impact on time perception.”
Exactly! When you look at your life through the lens of hindsight with a macro view, of course time appears to have flown by. But if you could take each year of your life and list what you did every day….week by week, month by month, year by year, you would realize how little time actually did fly by, and what a long journey it’s been to get to where you are today.
Can you imagine it’s going to be 20 years since 9 11? I have been having a hard time processing this as to me it has felt as still does feel like it’s been 5, maybe 6 but not 7 years since. What the heck is going on?
It is because it is a memory that is constantly recalled and reviewed in great detail. So it feels fresh every time you recall the memory regardless of how much time has passed. The clearer a memory is to us the closer it will appear. Especially when you are only recalling that event. Start adding in things that have happened since then and it will start to stretch out the time frame.
I think this is why time seems to get faster when we are older. We have more days to remember. A lot is redundant. Even things like birthdays and holidays no matter how fun they are become routine. Finding something special and unique in those moments can help you separate out those moments. Upon quick recall it is going to seem like something a while back happened just yesterday.
For me I went to Vegas 4 years ago. It was memorable and I think about it a lot. So I go how they hell did 4 years pass by already. But then I start thinking about the other trips I have gone on in between and all the other big moments since then and it then starts to bridge that time and actually make it feel like 4 years have passed.
I still struggle with it a lot though as I am about to turn 34 and my kids are going to be 8 and 6 and thinking how fast 10 years will fly and they will be going to or getting ready to go to college. You want to remember everything in great detail and not miss out or forget anything, but it literally is impossible. It is just something I guess we have to learn to live with.
Oh man, that’s a great way to think of it.
I do that all the time – have a clear memory and that same feeling of how is this so long ago. Filling in other memories really does help.
This makes me feel more at ease.
All we truly have is now. So live life to the fullest in every moment. Enjoy the ones your with, enjoy the ones you love. Because before you know it time will pass us by.
I always thought it was a matter of percentage. As a youngster, each day was a significant percentage of my entire life. So of course it seemed longer. Not only that, but the percentage of new experiences was greater. As a teenager more things were repeat, but still plenty of new things, and the days and weeks were each a slightly smaller slice of the total. So the progression continued as I became an adult.
Now I’m in my 70s. Each day is a much smaller slice of my total time here. And I’m doing many more things for the *last* time than for the first. I’m not surprised the last year has been a blink.
Incredible perspective 🙌 Thank you for sharing your insight ❤️☀️
I have noticed that when we go away on holiday for a fortnight, the first week passes much slower than the second. When we go away for only one week, the time still seems to pass slowly – the second half doesn’t rush by. I think that this has to do with novelty factor. The first seven days are more of a novelty than the last 7. Similarly a weekend away seems far longer than one spent at home doing the usual things. If we want time to pass more slowly perhaps we should try to break up the routine with new experiences.
Thank you so much for your efforts and helping us answer our most important and complex questions!
I’m feeling better now that I know what’s the reason why time pass this quickly…I’m 23 though…
The Denman Effect
Christopher Denman drops in
Punctually once a year,
Yet surprised I always am
Him earlier to behold.
This anomaly in time
I will name, ‘ The Denman Effect ‘,
For Denman shows me that time
Flows faster as one grows old!
Boghos L. Artinian
Psychologist William James, in his 1890 text Principles of Psychology, wrote that as we age, time seems to speed up because adulthood is accompanied by fewer and fewer memorable events. When the passage of time is measured by “firsts” (first kiss, first day of school, first family vacation), the lack of new experiences in adulthood, James morosely argues, causes “the days and weeks [to] smooth themselves out…and the years grow hollow and collapse.
I agree with William James from this 130 year old thesis. There is little “newness”, and a lack of things to “look forward to” as we get older. This is particularly true after age 65 (ish). Once retired, we have no “firsts” to excite us, and wait in anticipation for. At age 67, I am grateful to “look forward” vicariously, to the life events of my grandchildren (7 of them)…I look forward to passing along all the love and knowledge obtained throughout my own life. It is really perception, in the end. Another post stated that if our lifespan was 150 + years, this would be different.
With the passing of time & the speed at which it increases as time passes, my biggest regret is turning down endless opportunities to sleep with woman. I married very young & am a faithful, loving husband, but man I turned my back on so many pretty girls & free rides. Eat up everything you can that’s my advice.
Get rid of your computer, phone and TV. Read new books, go for walks. Time will slow dramatically.
I believe time passes more slowly when someone else is responsible for your well-being, you don’t have adult worries/responsibilities, and therefore you’re always in the moment. Mindfulness (or being in the moment) makes life seem longer and time seem slower. Once you reach adulthood and you’re constantly worried about things and planning ahead, you stop being in the moment. You’re always thinking and planning instead of just existing in the moment. Think about the way a toddler can lay down on the floor and stare at a bug moving or half an hour. Time goes slower for them because they are in the moment. And that’s it.
We are like an objects falling to the ground, the closer to the ground the grater the speed of the object. We begin to fall at the moment of conception. We are the object falling, time is the speed we are falling at…. the ground is death
This isn’t why time seems to fly by. This is just an analogy.
Albeit a good one!
I think we think and worry too much and that makes us start living in fear. Trust in God. He is in charge. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is uncertain. Smile and find things to be grateful for. Being happy makes a big difference.
Unpopular opinion, but still an opinion.
I wish I had that remote control from that movie Click. I want to fast-forward my life 15 years and be retired. And then, do whatever I want, whatever that is, as I want it, whenever I want it, without having to wake up early and see the same old stupid faces at work, having to deal with more ungrateful patients.
Apart from working in a hospital, I have been a patient myself since my unnecessary birth. Going into and coming out of hospitals my entire life. Renal issues. Being anxious to do medical exams every month to see if I have stable results, to adjust medication intake.
I don’t want to anger anyone by saying this but to any who suggests that God loves me, I have tried the god thing and it doesn’t work. To anyone who might say that there are worse things out there, there is nothing godly about that.
15 years. Everyone says how fast time goes by. I even started counting the days one by one, till my retirement. And they seem infinite.
I don’t have children and I don’t want any. I just need to pass the rest of my life peacefully. My life may be boring then when I get retired.
But at least it will be boring without obligations.
I’m 42 this year, and time goes by so much faster than let’s say 22.my 30’s flew by very fast! Where’d they go???
I also find you fear death less as you age, or is that just me? I once feared death as a child, but I honestly don’t anymore.
So much changes as we age! Developmental psychology plays a role imo.
I fear death very much! The loss of my parents, husband, brother, even pets. Spirituality comforts me. I don’t want to cease to exist. To not be conscious. Though I have been Depressed, I would never want to never “BE”… As am Empath I get many messages and know things that I couldn’t possibly know. So it gives me faith.
times go by fast I seemed cant collect my goals “meet goals” before I get too old so please explain to me how to get it done?
The theory I align closely to on why time seems to move faster as we get older is closer to perception and your own collection of new experiences.
While growing up, most experiences are new – so they get captured and stored, we can look back and think about all the fun stuff we did. So the perception is that time was dragged out longer, while in actuality you were just experiencing more new events which your brain would process and put into storage banks. Every year in school would be different, different classes, different extra activities, different teachers and sometimes different kids to meet or schools entirely. This all adds up to new experiences constantly. We learned, interacted and did a LOT in those years that were less tedious as we have gotten older.
Now, we go to the same job/career and perform the same routines over and over. We pay our bills, we cook dinner, we take care of the kids, we clean the house and so on. These things do change, but for the most part they are the same day in and day out. That is why, when you ask someone what they did last week – They have to struggle to remember, because these tedious motions that we mostly play on repeat all merge together. And before you know it, another year is down and you are wondering where the heck the time went.
Have you ever completed a commute from A -> B so many times, that some days you feel like you instantly ended up at B and don’t even remember the drive? Same thing happens with your life while on autopilot.
Anyone that has gone through a huge life change, via loss of a loved one or loss of a job which dramatically changed their life will probably never say – “This was the fastest year of my life!”. That is because the events of your life have made you stop, focus and pay attention to what is going on which drags things out. Once things settle and you get back into the “rhythm” of life, it will speed up again.
Also, if you are in a career/job that you hate and are always looking forward to the weekend – Then you are speeding up your life by always looking for the future and not enjoying it on the daily. You are living for 2 days off per week instead of enjoying the full 7.
That is my thoughts on it.
Thanks for reading!
A child sleeps in such a profound manner that when they awaken, they awaken like a new born in comparison to an aged person so that even the day before feels like much more like a remote past than it does as we age. Its not that they don’t remember what happened the day before but that the weight off it has been removed overnight (all things being equal).
One cannot remember this under normal conditions that this was our experience in later life because it is alien to the momentum of our current experience. Having said that one can rediscover this phenomena of being “washed clean” in sleep patterns in later life which has the exact same effect. One can leave work on Friday and then return on Monday with the sensation that one had been away for vastly extended period, as if one had gone on a distant all engulfing vacation over several months.
The exact mechanism I could not explain but am convinced it is, like a dream that goes for a few minutes but in its passage of time feels like it lasted several days. Is fundamentally related to our relationship to sleep.
As we age this capacity for sleep to profoundly regenerate us becomes encrusted to the point where days merge into a virtual break less continuum giving the sensation that things are passing faster without any real pause.
excuse the typos, my friends, the gist is there.
I’m a (soon) 15 year old, and since the last school year started the time flies so fast. It’s monday and right away it’s friday again, which makes me kinda sad, because I like school and I don’t want to leave already.
How fascinating…
This has been on my mind as a child. I was drawn to my elderly neighbors at age 10. They became my best friends. I told my mother at age 12: we are ALL the same age. We just get there at different times. I have always had a very strong urging and thoughts about various subjects, especially the human existence. I am in tune spiritually and emotionally.
….
My 2c on this issue is that when we are old/older we already master all the routines we go by during the day/week/month/year. Theres not much learning of anything at all. Try enrolling in a new university course or new challenging online course to see how things shift!!!! Cheers from Vancouver, Canada.
I really like this perspective and agree totally. Perspective, perspective, perspective. Also, has anyone felt time slow down when on a long holiday. When I go to a different country, like say China, for a few months, time slows down completely. The first week lasts for what feels like forever, second week a little faster and so on.
I would like to put your theory to the test though. I think I’m going to try something new to see how time shifts.
Thanks
I’m 57 I thought time was starting to fly buy in my 40’s onward. I read that it was due to us having a decline in Melatonin. So I got some tablets and take them from time to time. I don’t seem to perceive time flying by anymore….
I think the doctor has a valid point. When you are a child and younger not only your mind will process everything faster and make decisions faster. So growing older all of it will slow down and tasks that used to take you no time take you longer and longer. At least for me since I’ve always been doer and wanting to experience new things and generally do stuff my time seems to be measured by accomplishments in my mind. Days I do nothing just mean nothing and are wiped out of the timeline.
The workday when I was younger it was exiting and I was thinking about it already taking a shower in the morning and it never felt like work. Nowadays I feel I just go to work and don’t learn anything and at the end of the day it was just another workday that doesn’t need to be on my timeline of the memories. So it gets wiped out and surely takes about half of the waking hours out.
Just my thoughts and been thinking it long time. In purpose I do lots of activities since I realize time is passing by but even then the fact remains, when you age you slow down and the activities take longer so with less experiences to remember time seems to have moved faster.
I think the reason time goes by faster as an adult, is simply because we are orienting our lives based on a block type schedule rather than simply living in the moment as children do. We are always anticipating the next day, and the next goal. Whether it be yearning for Friday to come on a Monday or planning a big move a year ahead, hating your job and zoning out to get through the day, commuting. It all seems to become so automatic that the time it takes to actually do these things seems to pass by so quickly.
Our perception of time is based on our value of time. When we are young we don’t think about the past we can only think of what is ahead of us, therefore we wish the time to speed up. As we age, we reminisce on past times and realize our days are dwindling away from us. Which leaves us wanting more and realizing the value of each day that passes. I teach my children to value each age that u become because u only get it once, also not to wish the days away because before we know it, they will be gone.
Our perception of time is based on our value of time. When we are young we don’t think about the past we can only think of what is ahead of us, therefore we wish the time to speed up. As we age, we reminisce on past times and realize our days are dwindling away from us. Which leaves us wanting more and realizing the value of each day that passes. I teach my children to value each age that u become because u only get it once, also not to wish the days away because before we know it, they will be gone.
As we grow older, it can often feel like time goes by faster and faster. … This is what leads to time passing more rapidly. When we are young, each second of actual time is packed with many more mental images. Like a slow-motion camera that captures thousands of images per second, time appears to pass more slowly.
The Earth is moving faster than it ever has in the last 50 years, scientists have discovered, and experts believe that 2021 is going to be the shortest year in decades. … This is because the Earth is spinning faster on its axis quicker than it has done in decades and the days are therefore a tiny bit shorter.
On July 19, 2020, the actual day on Earth was 1.4602 milliseconds shorter than a full 24 hours, making it the shortest day ever recorded. Since then, the record short day has been broken a total of 28 times. Now in 2021, days are spinning faster, nearly 0.5 milliseconds shorter than a full 24 hours.
that’s the fact😁
Something I’ve noticed, when you are perceiving a new experience, time seems to slow as you’re working harder to understand and take on the new information, but once you experience that same thing again, you already know what to expect, so it’s not particularly memorable or worth much thought, and so it seems to pass faster, as we get older we collect more experiences, and so are very likely to experience the same things day to day, and why would we remember every single repetition of what we already know from the first experience?
The real secret to a long life is filling every day with new experiences, making memories.
Simpler answer…… When you are 10 years old 1 year is 1 tenth of you
existence. When you are 50 year old 5 years is 1 tenth of your existence.
So going from 10 years old to 11 – feels the same as going from 50 year old to 55.
(living 1/10 more of your total existence) So of course, 1 year at age 55 feels faster
than 1 year at age 10.
My mom has always complained about how everyday felt faster and what seemed to be happened a long time ago she said she swore happened last week. I’m in ninth grade now and I know I’m younger than most people here, but I feel like my mom was right and time does feel so much faster obviously not that everything is speeding up it’s just that I swore I only started processing January to March 2021 and now it’s December, I don’t remember experiencing any other month only doing little things here and there, but certainly not enough memories for 9 months. I don’t like how I am just watching life pass me before I can realize it and I try hard to remember my experiences so I have a time stamp to sort of return to it and know that that month actually happened. Maybe it was the pandemic but I was just 12 in March 2020 and now I’m going to graduate freshman year.
It is a strange companion we travel through Life with,
this rapscalion Time.
In our early youth, she demurs and seems to take forever to pass,
But yet, when we learn the ropes of Life,
this temptress, Time, seems to take on a hurried gate.
Even then, we often find that she has tricked us and ran on ahead,
Surprising us with fleeting moments
which flit from now to yesterday to yesteryear in a blink.
As we learn enough to sit in wisdom
and contemplate Time’s journey at our side,
We yearn for the frolic of youth when she seemed to take forever,
Yet even now we give homage to Time for remaining with us,
And offering us whatever yesterdays and tomorrows that she so deigns.
K. Ready circa 2021
They told me to follow the science yet there is no consensus on the time speeding up phenomenon. All I know is that my physical experience is more rich and meaningful because I have faith that when my time is up, I will no longer be bound by the limits of time.
Bullsheeve as you age and find time is greater and your fullfilment within that time is diminished you succumb. Purpose in life is the only thing that is going to keep you alive and time in perspective.
I think it’s related to soul development. The older you grow, the more you experience, and your soul develops as well. This speeds up the time that you experience as a person. So in your next reincarnation, the environment time-stamp also speeds up.
More time is slower, not faster.
The first question is: what is time. We perhaps define as the duration between events and select what we perceive as events that that are stable. The movement of the earth, the sun or atoms in atomic clocks. Whatever we use; they are observable within our world, solar system and universe. Outside the universe is unknown, unexplored and anyones guess. Light is the sacred fundamental measurement of something alongside gravity. But what would we observe if we didn’t exist in a world of light and gravity? Imagine if our world was at the bottom of the deepest ocean: the abyss, no light and gravity exists, but the the water effective disguises it. Time clearly exist, because things happen. There is a duration of time between events but how would they be measured?
If you are aware of your own existence, then the length of your life is how you can perceive it. To a three year old a year is a long time ie a third of their living memory, but to an eighty year old, a year is ony an 80th of their living memory. As a general rule: size seems important for lifespan and the slower the activity the longer the life. Ultimately, totally inanimate objects like rocks and mountains stay around for millions of years, but I have no ambition to be one.
It’s all illusion. My experience is that things that happened two weeks ago feel like an eternity. I think it also has to do with consciousness eg. You’re driving and suddenly realize you went five miles (daydreaming?) and how does that differ from dreaming what we dream while asleep? Soon none it will matter as technology encroaches more and more on our ” experience”. The tech giants have us right where they want after all how could we survive sans cellphones, tablets, games it’s dizzying. I digress.
Wow, the comments on this article is absolutely full of craziness.
I don’t know why people think they have the knowledge and experience to refute a paper by an actual expert, the dunning kruger effect is quite apparent.
The amount of pseudoscientific nonsense also present should really warm people off of this website.
A well experienced sales person can do this job only effectively. People who are not sure about outcome based selling should give it a visit. They will be find it very useful.
Oh my gosh. I think you’re all overthinking this. I don’t buy this theory at all. It’s not my perceptions that are off, it’s that it takes longer to do things and we get distracted and daydream more when we are older. I find myself daydreaming, standing there doing nothing, lost in thought and the next thing I know 5 minutes have past and I accomplished nothing. You have less energy and more pain and mobility issues so everything is harder to do so it all takes longer. You simply get less done in an hour than you used to. So you run out of time to do things and the day seems shorter. The other issue this article does not address is that it seems to be affecting everyone regardless of age. The years just seem to be flying by. Two recent examples…locally recent events reminded people of a past event that happened 4 years ago but numerous people of varying ages all commented that it happened a couple of years ago. As I was having the same feeling, I checked for the actual date and it was 4 years ago to the month. Mentioning that surprised everyone. The other example…an incident happened two weeks ago but in conversation we all kept saying “last week” and acting like it had happened a week ago, but after looking at my calendar I realized it was 2 weeks to the day that it happened. Again, the people involved are of varying ages. I would expect that the older the person is, the more inaccurate the perception of time passage would be, but that is not the case. That is why I reject this article’s theory. I just don’t see it manifesting in real life. Something else is going on. Could be all the wifi and cellphone signals and all the different forms of technological radiation we are exposed to constantly. Or could also be due to our constant bombardment of incoming information via TV, radio, phones, internet, any mobile device, etc. We never really have time to ourselves to just relax. There is always something to do. We’re constantly go go go all day. It didn’t used to be like that. I remember getting bored a lot. I haven’t been bored in years. I’m 51.
I thought Richard. P. Cripps post dated August 23rd above expressed your sentiments beautifully. It gave me pause to ponder. I do believe he (and you!) may be on to a technique we oldsters can actually use to slow down the acceleration of passing time…if we wish. Now that is worth a study!
I think subjectively its not the above. In my early 40’s time started to increasingly appear to zoom by with kids, and the house and pets and the relatives and all the usual stuff people do that keeps them occupied. Later on, when I decided that I’ve done all I can to set things up a certain way, I did a complete 180. I gave up the modern way of life, I practically moved into an almost tribal village in the rainforest. I was older but still in good physical shape. The locals were a little confused at first but in time they accepted me and I found a role in their society that was useful. Time seemed to subjective come to almost a stand-still throughout this whole process. It’s started picking up again way later after I was already established with the locals but in no way does it feel the same as when I was in the states in the big city, rushing to all the ‘important’ events and meeting with the ‘important’ people. I think simpler, more rural and more communal societal configurations make this process much less uniquely felt. It’s a matter of perspective, and living in the ‘west’ is the most undesirable perspective vantage point to have when dealing with this issue of subjective time perception.
Time flies when you’re having fun
My first daughter was born 28 years ago yet it seems only 5 years ago. It is panicking and depressing to think that i have roughly 5 or less years left to reach age of 87(that is if I last till then).
Understanding the causes for this phenomenon might help finding a remedy even if it is half ass.
I have read most of the comments. I used to blame the percentage theory. Now I think there are number of other factors at work.
Culprits:
1-Journey of discoveries – It starts intensely from day one and brain reaches its climax in terms of functionality sometimes in the mid 20’s. Brain wears down every single day afterwards. Playing hide n seek does not feel as exciting anymore the way it did when experienced as a child. The less things draw our attention, pleasant or not, the less they will be recorded in our memory. If events are not recorded or well pegged in memory, they become non existent and obliterate any sense of time that was spent on experiencing them.
2-Memory loss- As we get older our brain loses its sharpness leading to gradual memory loss. Memory loss results in losing any sense of time that was spent on the events. So if it feels my daughter was born 5 years ago, is because I forgot memories associated with 23 years of her growing up.
3-Losing interest and saturation- Gradually running out of things/adventures to look forward to experience is another culprit. When people feel ready to go is most likely, I suspect, is because there is not single thing left for them to enjoy experiencing. I had a passion for sports cars when I was younger but could never afford a Ferrari. The reason for not having one now is not money. Its absolute lack of interest. It is no longer exciting.
4-Technology and more importantly internet /digital world – Going shopping for our wedding ring was a memorable one which I remember every moment of it 35 years later. I can do the same purchase online which is NOT memorable. The amount of information and experiences achieved due to presence and advancement of technology is simply too fast and overwhelming to leave a memorable impact in our brain. Hence wiping out the time spent on them. That includes taking 3 hour flight to a vacation destination rather than taking memorable one week drive to the destination. I have vivid memories of almost all road trips but far less memories taking planes. This can lead to #3.
5-Experiencing an event where its memory is not recorded. I still remember some of the movies I watched when I was 12. Now I don’t remember what movie I watch last week or what I had for breakfast. If the event does not stay in the memory the time associated with watching that movie or the breakfast is vaporized resulting getting the sense that time is passing faster than it realy is.
6-Mental disorder or close to disorder – # 3 can potentially lead to becoming depressed sitting on a chair doing nothing therefore noting to memorize leading to obliterating time spent sitting on a chair doing nothing resulting in feeling months and years flying by.
I can think of approximate suggestion for some of the culprits for you specially younger ones. For 1 and 2 there is no fix as we all expire eventually but keeping the brain as healthy as possible ensure the outcome to be as good as it gets(don’t fry the brain with drugs). For 3, I would suggest to try not to over work or over achieve. Take a balance approach to life. In this digital and fast moving world you can jam pack a lot of experiences in a relatively short time. Leave some ventures untapped for later in life. Sometimes cook from scratch instead of ordering Uber eats, take road trips, explore cultures and places you go instead of taking all inclusive crap getting wasted by the pool side etc.
I over worked and somewhat over achieved in my 30s and 40s. As a result I am nearly suffering from depression(#6) due to 2 and 3.
I am 59.
Yes, the speeding up comes with not necessarily sadness but emptiness too.
Yes, the speeding up comes with not necessarily sadness but emptiness too. I feel that way often times
As we age the physical body must be way more taken care of. Especially chronic situation (some rooted in our childhood/society behaviours like I had and have to deal with) .
Then a young has not the heaviness of heaving to deal with burocracy or having too many life related preoccupation (linked to survival…and old age survival).
Hence the free time is scarce. The projects so many. And so the duties and needs and knowing time left is at the end….
That makes me feeling it running. We know we are getting there….
I feel like it’s similar to the double slit experiment in a way. Like the processing speed plus the act of simply observing time changes the way we perceive it and as we gain more knowledge and our view of the world changes so do how we perceive time and that’s why it is percieved as a gradual happening; our perception that time speeds up as we age. It’s crazy how linear time theory and the acceleration of how we perceive time kind of seem connected or similar. Maybe our processing if visual information I’m frames is what time really is just conscoius observation of reality like time and reality cannot exist without the observer and that’s why I say its kinda like the double slit experiment. But I have never studied this stuff ir read much about it. I only know very little from watching the cosmos and quantum physics videos on YouTube about different theories. I just think a lot and see the world differently. I cannot get it out of my head that I’m this incredibly microscopic or I guess there isn’t a term for how small we really are in comparison to the unknown and infinite size of whatever is on the outside of our universe, but I imagine myself that way as if I was a ginormous bring on the outsidex10 of whatever is outside our universe, but it’s incredible. Like when we view the microscopic wouldand if we could view the quantum realm like on the movie antman. Scientists looking from that perspective may be oblivious to our existence and couldn’t believe the work being done on the tiniest spell of matter we call earth. Like isn’t our existence so insignificant but also so very important when you factor in perspective and observation. This stuff blows my mind and just really gets me mad cause I want to know all there is to know. And there’s never gonna be a way to know much more than I do now. So it’s frustrating.
in my opinion the best way to reflect on life is to get a standard measuring tape from either your garage or local merchant, stretch it out to 70 inches , because they say that’s what we are allocated , 3 score years and ten, then have a look at where you are on the tape , what have you done with your life so far and what can you achieve with the balance , it is quite an eye opener , enjoy and Regards
I have what I think is an excellent way to to describe how time seems to move more quickly as we get older. Consider your life as a Pizza. When you are eight years old, cut the pizza pie in eight slices, one slice is a year of your life. When you are 40 years old, cut the pie into 40 slices, one is a year of your life. Much less so it goes faster.
There is a real reason for this:. My Fellow Humans , we are making it happen, it seems like Time is going faster because it is, Time is being speeded up as Technology is pushing our lives faster and faster and faster everyday. It’s not just us Older people, look how fast kids are growing up now , they are growing so fast they don’t have time to slow down and don’t tailgate in the fast lane.!!!
If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves. Maria Edgeworth
My own theory is this . If we did not have time as a measurement of things would we live longer ? Time as a measurement is “man made” but the conditioning of our life is placed on us since birth .
If time seems to go faster when you’re my age (84), why does 4 years ago seem like 10?
I find that when not much change is taking place in life, time seems to go very slowly but when I look back at that time, it seems to have flown by because there is nothing to show for it in my memory. When a lot is happening, time seems to fly by, but when I look back at it, it seems like things happened further back then they actually did because my memory is filled with many experiences. I think there is a difference between how we experience time as it is happening versus how we experience it when reflecting on the past.