You will certainly have noticed: the years seem to pass much faster as you get older. This phenomenon, natural and general, has several scientific explanations.
It’s a phenomenon that we all see, and often with astonishment. While the days seem endless during childhood, the years come quickly in adulthood. We have the impression that time is flying and even speeding up! Everything is going faster and faster, and it’s not linked to our activities. In fact this sensation is natural and general: it is linked to several factors that scientists and biologists have studied at length.
One of the main explanations is based on how the brain functions. As we age, neurons and nerve networks become more complex, slowing down information processing. Adrian Bejan, a professor at Duke University, explains that the brain perceives the passage of time based on the “mental images” it records. Children, by constantly discovering new things, receive more images per day, thus lengthening their perception of time. Conversely, an adult, whose days are often more repetitive, receives less new information, giving the impression that time is speeding up.
Slowing metabolism is another explanation for this feeling. Over the years, breathing and heartbeat slow down. In children, on the contrary, these functions are faster, which contributes to a longer perception of time. Biologist Brian Yates suggests that this difference in the intensity of biological activity directly influences how we experience time.
Routine also plays a major role. In adulthood, days are often the same, while childhood is marked by many first experiences. A child continually explores a new world, which makes time more dilated. On the other hand, adults, accustomed to their environment, perceive less novelty, accentuating the feeling that the days and years are passing by.
A final factor is the relativity of time in relation to age. For a five-year-old child, a year represents 20% of their life, a significant proportion which explains why this period seems long. For a fifty-year-old adult, on the other hand, a year represents only 2% of their life, which can give the impression that the years are getting shorter.
As we can see, temporal acceleration is not linked to an illness: it is the natural fruit of aging. All the “old hands” will tell you: more than money or power, time is precious. And if you can’t slow it down, the wisest thing is to simply savor the present time, to continue learning and being amazed every day of life.