The older you get, the faster time passes. Or so it seems. But what if there were a way to slow time down?
Time Passage
Remember when you were a child waiting for Christmas to arrive? Time moved so slowly you thought it would never come. Adults would wisely counsel: Don’t wish your life away. It will get here soon enough. They also warned that when you got older, time would fly.
They were right. As the years passed, time passed faster. The summer my oldest niece was ten, I remember asking her if she thought the days were going by faster. She said, “Yes,” without hesitation, and I concluded the reason wasn’t a person’s age but the fast-paced world we live in. And while I still believe that is partly true, I recently learned there are physical reasons for the phenomenon.
The Science
A study by Duke University Mechanical Engineering Professor, Adrian Bejan, PhD, provides a scientific explanation to the time-speeds-with-age phenomenon.
Time in the human mind is not perceived and measured like “clock time.” “Mind time” is a sequence of images collected in your mind.
A child’s mind receives and stores many more images during the day than an adult’s. One reason is the “newness” factor. Adults are desensitized to the world around them because they’re already familiar with it and so have no need for new images. A child’s mind also has plenty of room to stow those images and the paths to them are short. As you grow older, your brain’s nerves and neurons mature and grow larger and more complex, making the paths to the new images longer. The electrical signals carrying them are also slower because the nerves, like other parts of the body, deteriorate with age.
According to Professor Bejan, “The human mind senses time changing when the perceived images change. The present is different from the past because the mental viewing has changed, not because somebody’s clock rings. Days seemed to last longer in your youth because the young mind receives more images during one day than the same mind in old age.”
In other words, the older you get, the slower your brain obtains and processes images. This misalignment of “clock” and “mind” time creates the perception of time speeding up.
Did You Know…
- The rate mental images are perceived declines as certain physical features (saccades frequency, body size, and degradation of mental pathways) change with age.
- The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines saccade as “a small rapid jerky movement of the eye especially as it jumps from fixation on one point to another (as in reading).”
The Solution
There is a way to slow time, at least our perception of it.
First, take care of your body and mind, making sure both get plenty of rest. You’re more productive when you consistently get a good night’s sleep.
Second, expose yourself to new experiences by traveling to new places, learning new crafts and skills, meeting new people, or giving yourself new challenges. Time seems to slow down, regardless of your age, when you’re exposed to new things.
Third, be more conscious of your everyday experiences. Writers have a saying, “Show don’t tell.” In other words, instead of telling the reader a character is mowing his lawn on a hot July day, show them, using as many of the five senses as possible. What does he . . .
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- See? (Mower, weeds, leaves, flowers, sticks, lawn furniture, bird bath, etc.)
- Hear? (Mower engine, car or train horn, kids’ laughter, birds, dogs, etc.)
- Feel? (Sweat sliding down forehead, eyes burning from sweat, sun’s rays burning skin, etc.)
- Taste? (Salty sweat, grape-flavored gum, etc.)
- Smell? (Fresh-cut grass, gasoline fumes, meat on a grill, etc.)
Next time you do your chores, pay attention to what’s around you. Experience the physical sensations with all five senses. This avoids familiarity and creates new images simply by changing the way you experience chores.
Did You Know…
- Fatigue slows the rate mental images are perceived by interfering with saccades.
- Children process images faster, and so have quicker eye movements.
- An Ohio State University study published in the scientific journal Developmental Psychology found that children pay attention to everything (We needed a study to tell us this?), while adults pay attention to only those things considered important or interesting.
Final Thoughts
The goal is to slow “mind” time and get it more in line with “clock” time. To do that you need to increase the images your brain obtains and processes. The more new information your mind absorbs, the slower time moves. Understanding how this information-intake and time relationship works is the key to slowing time.
Bottom line: The real enemy is not time, but familiarity.