Is Time Passing Faster?

Why Does Time Feel as If It is Speeding up?

                It seems almost cliché and most of us can attest that time feels as if to pass faster and faster each year. As another month is comes to a close, many of my clients described this a bewildering experience, thus I thought it would be fun to share the theories for why this happens. There is a bit more science to it than mystery.

First, there is a novel memory hypothesis which describes that as we are younger we are consistently coming across new or novel experiences and thus creating new neural pathways and experiencing time as being stretched out or extended. However, as one gets older, there tends to be fewer and fewer novel situations and fewer new memories resulting in time being experienced as shorter. I find this ironic as in the moment the opposite seems to be true – a novel experience and time flies while the boring humdrum seems like time is crawling, (that speaks to the days are long and the years are short phenomena).

Second, there is the proportionality of time theory. This describes the subjective nature of the experience of time. For example, as a child, for a ten year old, a year represents 10% of their life, rather substantial chunk of time and thus a year feels like a more substantial portion of life to go through. As we age, that percentage gets lower and lower. By the time you are 50 years old a year will be 2% thus making a year seem like a shorter period of time.

Then, we have the neuroscience perspective. Here science has observed that as we age our neural speed or the speed at which the brain processes neural information slows down. Literally a reduction in our frame-per-second will give an impression or illusion that external time seems faster.

Yes, there I still one more layer to this explanation of time seeming to speed up and that is a natural reduction in dopamine production as we age. Dopamine plays a role aiding in learning and recognizing novelty. At risk of going on a side-tangent this also plays a role in the time-blindness those presenting with ADHD face. In short, reduced dopamine can potentially cause the brain to pay less attention to the passage of time.

Now, the good news. There is a way to help slow the experience of time. What is needed is the introduction of novelty and a shift or break in daily routines. How do you do this effectively, you may ask? What part of your daily habits are due for a change or upgrade? What new skill might you be interested in learning? – A new language? A new craft? Or, my personal favorite are there new places you can travel to or experience, (this could be a staycation exploring new places in your usual environment or if time/resources allow it can be going to an exotic location)?

Now you have it, there is science behind this phenomenon and there is something you can do about it. Need help finding novelty or effectively switching up the daily routine? I can help with that, simply reach out.