The Illusion of Time: Why It Flows at Different Speeds

Our perception of time is somewhat contradictory. On one hand, it seems linear and fixed. It's impossible to go back in time, and minutes, days, months, and years follow one after the other, moving strictly forward. On the other hand, it seems like time can stretch, freeze, or accelerate. There are moments that feel like they last an eternity. For example, waiting in line or sitting through a boring post-work meeting. Weekends or vacations, on the other hand, seem to pass by differently. Before you know it, the relaxation is almost over. This is related to how our brains try to manage time using different types of illusions.

Chronostasis

This illusion is easy to provoke on your own. While reading a book or watching TV, glance at an analog clock. You're guaranteed to catch the moment when the second hand stands still. It seems like it lingers for too long, as if it's frozen between the markings, but then it continues its usual rhythm. The "stopped clock" most vividly illustrates the phenomenon of chronostasis. The cause of this harmless illusion is a complex process that coordinates the work of the eyes and the brain. When a person focuses attention on something, visual perception of information outpaces consciousness. In simpler terms, the eyes are faster than the brain, which is not surprising. Light reflected from the page or screen needs to reach the visual cortex first. Then the signal is processed and interpreted. We don't notice the process because it happens continuously, like breathing, blinking, heartbeat. During a shift in attention focus, when the eyes move to a new target (in this case, the clock), the visual cortex stops receiving information. Otherwise, our vision would be blurry and disorienting. When eye movement stops, the visual cortex activates again. However, you never notice an empty or blind spot in time during a shift in attention focus. The brain fills it in retroactively to make the "picture" smooth and coherent. The second hand was "photographed" before the eyes focused on it. That's why it seems to linger in one place for too long.

The Oddball Effect

Time "slows down" when we encounter something unusual but attention-grabbing. Any stimulus can be such an "oddball." For example, a series of images with a simple dot that stays on the screen for exactly two seconds. One of the dots starts moving, expanding over those same two seconds, but it will seem to you that much more time has passed because the oddball stimulus has captured your attention, making you process the information more carefully. The same mechanism works with auditory signals. Just change the pitch of one of them, and time will slow down. Although the oddball sound itself will sound the same length as all the other similar signals. This is a product of evolution — part of the overall instinct for self-preservation. Anything new and standout must be studied and evaluated for safety. Confirmation of this is research. When the visual stimulus becomes larger, as if it is approaching the observer, time slows down. That is, 2 seconds during which the dot expands turn into 3 or 4 seconds. Meanwhile, when the object shrinks, as if moving away from the observer, time returns to normal or even accelerates. For the brain, an approaching and potentially dangerous object is much more important, so more resources are allocated to its evaluation.

The Power of Fear

Different emotional states can affect time perception. Fear is one of the strongest emotions, making the brain work more intensively. When we are scared, seconds turn into minutes, and minutes into hours. Of course, not literally, not in reality, but it feels that way. There is a partial connection here with the "oddball effect," as anything frightening is clearly distinguished from everyday life. Near-death experience is one of the scariest events one can imagine. Some describe how their entire life flashes before their eyes in a matter of seconds. In such moments, adrenaline rushes into the blood, the heart rate increases to absorb more oxygen, bronchial arteries dilate. Tunnel vision occurs: a person feels a surge of strength, and time seems to stand still. Thus, the body tries to save itself by releasing all resources for a final leap or other decisive action. However, there is another explanation. After experiencing a moment of mortal danger or just intense fear, we don't remember many minor details. The brain was focused on the main threat — the source of fear. This can be imagined as memories in high definition. A second-long event is recorded in all details, evaluated from all sides, and therefore it seems so long.

The March of Time

Everyone has heard that years fly by faster as a person gets older. Perhaps you have already felt this. A study was conducted in which people of different ages were asked to count three minutes mentally. The youth group up to 20 years old performed the best. But the older the participant, the sooner they reported completing the three-minute interval. Some participants in the experiment, aged 60 and older, reduced the three minutes to 40 seconds. There is an explanation for this illusion. For any person, a year consists of 365 days. However, this stretch is perceived completely differently. A 14-year-old teenager sees a whole life in a year. In conscious age, he has only lived through a few such intervals, and each of them was eventful, full of events, new discoveries, and experiences. By 45, the value of the year drops significantly, it becomes just another one among many years. New emotions or vivid events become rare, everything goes in a familiar rhythm. Therefore, it seems that the years fly by faster than before."