It has become known why years "fly by" faster with age

THE PHENOMENON OF TIME: WHY YEARS FLY BY FASTER WITH AGE

"In childhood, summer seemed endless, and waiting for a birthday felt like an eternity. Today, we're surprised at how quickly a year has flown by. Scientists claim: the perception of time really does change with age.

"How we experience days, weeks, and years depends on our experience and from which perspective we look at time - from the present or from the past," reveals Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Cindy Lustig.

Researchers have discovered the main reason - the ratio of lived to current time. For an eight-year-old child, a week represents a significant part of their life experience, whereas for an 80-year-old person, it's just a fleeting moment. Over the years, life becomes more predictable, days take on a monotonous character, and the brain stops registering the boundaries between weeks and months.

According to observations by Professor Adrian Bejan from Duke University, our brain primarily "records" changes. Children's lives are filled with new events - school, friends, games - and each of them leaves a vivid impression in memory. That's why time in childhood seems so slow. Adults can experience a similar effect during vacations filled with new impressions.

There is also a visual aspect to this phenomenon: in youth, we receive significantly more new visual information, which "stretches" subjective time. Gradually, the brain gets used to the surrounding environment and registers less and less that is new - hence the feeling that days rush by at an incredible speed.

Is it possible to somehow slow down this rapid passage of time? Specialists claim that yes - it's necessary to introduce as much novelty into life as possible: travel, new hobbies, interesting acquaintances. Everything that goes beyond the usual helps to fill memory with vivid events and slow down the subjective flow of time.

Source: techinsider.ru