10 February 2019 3:50

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Physics Explained why TIME flows Faster with age

Why in childhood it seems that the year lasted longer than when we matured? Physicists came to the conclusion that the sense of time depends on our age, occupations and hours that we devote to sleep and rest.

A scientist from Duke University (USA) Adrian Bejan studied the problem of "inconstancy" of time. According to his conclusions, the perception of time is based on external stimuli and depends on what we see around. Quartz leads excerpts from his still unpublished article.

"The day lasts for 24 hours - on all watches, wrist and wall, and on the tower. But the physical time does not coincide with the subjective. Your perception of time is different from the perception of another person" - writes the researcher.

The perception of each person's time is different from the perception of another and depends on the speed with which our brain processes images. The older we get, the slower these processes occur.

In other words, the younger we are, the more the unknown goes into our brain — and it seems to us that time passes more slowly. With age, the “lagging” of the brain creates the illusion of the transience of time.

A diagram showing how time perception changes with age.

Adrian Bejan is also confident that this phenomenon is associated with saccadas - fast, consistent eye movements in one direction. According to the scientist, our brain needs time to process the information obtained using saccades, and the fixation periods in the interval between the saccades in children are shorter than in adults.

Also, with age, cognitive processes slow down, and it seems to us that everything around us moves faster than it actually is. To "slow down" the internal course of time, the scientist recommends getting enough sleep: the brain needs rest in order to quickly respond to external stimuli.

A note from: Alice