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Why Does Time Go Faster As We Get Older?

Ubiquity, Volume 2008 Issue October | BY Philip Yaffe 

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Full citation in the ACM Digital Library

Persons in every age group wonder why time seems to move so much faster than it did in their pasts. It seems as if there is never enough time to get everything done and that the situation only gets worse. Many explanations have been offered for this, but few seem to hit the target as well as Phil Yaffe's explanation. We hope you enjoy and find it provocative. Phil has been a writer and journalist for over four decades and is able to write eloquently about his personal experience with accelerating time.


Persons in every age group wonder why time seems to move so much faster than it did in their pasts. It seems as if there is never enough time to get everything done and that the situation only gets worse. Many explanations have been offered for this, but few seem to hit the target as well as Phil Yaffe's explanation. We hope you enjoy and find it provocative.

Phil has been a writer and journalist for over four decades and is able to write eloquently about his personal experience with accelerating time.

Peter Denning
Editor

COMMENTS

Time isn?t a constant. It changes speed based on factors such as gravity.

��� Fred Harrison, Sun, 17 Apr 2022 06:25:56 UTC

I am a born again Christian and aged 61. I too echo with almost everyone else - where does the time go? I believe that we were created by God, and that we are moving towards eternity. I remember as a young boy, playing with a large magnet and some nails. I used to try and see how close I could get the the the nails could be moved near the magnet before they were carried by it?s magnetic force towards it. Thinking of this recently, if I had a really good slow motion camera or similar I could see that the closer the nail was moving towards the magnet the faster it would go. I feel like that nail now as it were - the closer I get to eternity the faster the time seems to slip by. I am not a wordsmith so forgive my grammar etc. Enjoying my life here and I know that for those who trust in Jesus the best is yet to come. God bless. Donald

��� Donald Martin, Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:48:30 UTC

Ludo is a perfect timepass of ludo dice game, you played ludo in childhood now you can play on phone or tablet.

��� Ludo game, Thu, 16 May 2019 07:20:57 UTC

Interesting that in 10 years this post has amassed so many different comments proposing so many different explanations for the apparent speed up of time as we age. I've thought about this accelerating-time phenomenon for several decades. I'll go into what seems the best theory in a minute, but, having been a wordsmith for ... a very long time ... I want to correct a language error at the heart of the comment by Fred Guevara on 06 May 2016. Fred talked about having a problem with the word "persons," thinking it was a simple plural of "person," which he believed to be "people." In fact, "people" is a singular noun for a group of human beings taken collectively. That is "set" of persons. Hence, we can talk about, say, Slavic peoples (the plural of people) speaking related languages. "Persons" means multiple instances of human beings taken individually. They're entirely different words with different meanings. Peter Denning got it right. Back to perceived time. While physicists have a very specific notion of time, which does not actually "flow" (WE move through IT), that has little to do with our perception of time. Perception is a wholly subjective response. In her comment of 31 Jan 2017, Dianne Hutchison expressed it best, while other commenters have tried to say the same thing. Basically, we compare the latest interval (minute, hour, day, week, etc.) to our whole life. To a baby 15 minutes old, fifteen minutes is a lifetime! It's similar to our subjectively scaling physical dimensions to our own bodies. That's why the world seems smaller than it did when we were children. We're bigger, so the world seems smaller. The two phenomena are actually the same. It's just obvious what's happening with respect to spatial dimensions, but less obvious with respect to time.

��� C.G. Masi, Sat, 08 Sep 2018 22:08:18 UTC

Familiarity and routine makes life seem faster. 1st day of any job goes forever and the 1st week of holidays is the longest. As some have eluded to. Doings different things slows time, while routine (even though the clock might seem slow) years go quickly. You now know the answer.

��� ausy Dee, Sun, 11 Feb 2018 11:49:37 UTC

It must have something to do with anticipation. I'm 60 years old and keep waiting for retirement, and it never comes!! I have 6 more years, and each year is excrutiating long...the WAITITNG and the

��� Bonnie, Mon, 29 Jan 2018 17:33:51 UTC

The Passage of Time is determined by the Goals we set in. As, the motivation to achieve our ambitions short termed & long termed,ignores the presence, where the time is still.The ethics of success,leads to less realization of life in presence or present time. The reflection of this is seems in the tendency of photo or vedio capturing, so as to store it for later stage instead of living with it in the present.

��� Deepak Chanpuriya, Thu, 09 Nov 2017 11:38:35 UTC

Yes! Interesting, its really wonder in almost all ages because with the growing time we are facing bundle of knowledge by interacting with machines. Although, its been quit simple to know that next generation is smarter then elder one. On the other hand earth become more populated then past with multiple creatures or our information expanded too with all these situation. My theory is universe moving with higher acceleration then past and human information become knowledge with same acceleration so that its just not seems to be fast its really fast today. Further more in next generations you can imagine our Earth rotating and revolving gradually faster than past. Theoretically more workload leads time to feel faster.

��� Muhammad Majid, Thu, 26 Oct 2017 08:21:45 UTC

Brilliant article. Just the perspective I needed. It feels so right :)

��� Raven Digitalis, Sun, 06 Aug 2017 01:25:03 UTC

This is spot on. I think time also moves quicker or drags if you are have a good life or struggling. Its perspective really. Ten years could be the best years of your life while the other 60-70 not so great and the ten years of good living seem to fly by. I also think that as we age we don't look so much forward to things but rather to the past. I seem to be stuck in them waiting game. Waiting for the monthly retirement check. Waiting to see the doctor. Or waiting to pick up my son from school. Not too exciting but a lot of time passes doing nothing really. Still time flies by.

��� David Donahue, Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:42:18 UTC

It's part of the nature of life for time to accelerate as we age. This acceleration is almost imperceptible each year, but the result is that each decade that you live through goes by faster than the one before. Your 20s go faster than your teens, your 30s go faster than your 20 s and so on. This seems to go along the lines of the fact that when you are 10 that year is 1/10th of your life, when you are 40 that year is 1/40th of your life, and so on. The younger you are the bigger the difference there is between ages. There's less of a difference between a 25 and a 26 year old compared with a 15 and a 16 year old. With the corresponding years in each decade there becomes less and less of a difference. A quantification of this is that when we are kids growing up, adults never seem to change & as adults kids seem to grow up so quickly before our eyes. Consider that each year in elementary school is a huge difference in our development, with those early school years going by feeling almost like mini-lifetimes, separated by endless summers. When you got out of school on a Friday, Monday was far, far away. When summer vacation started the next school year was so far away in the future you didn't think of it. As a kid Memorial Day and The Fourth of July seemed far away from each other. As an adult they seem to get closer and closer over the years. Think of how long the journey was going from being a 13 year old in junior high to being a college graduate in the work force at 22. Through Junior High, High School and College, it was a 10 year period. Now think of the last 10 years of your life compared to that period. Speaking of school, classes were always 40 minutes as I remember. Decades later 40 minutes seems to go by in a snap of the fingers. I can also use sports seasons as an example. When the season of your favorite sport would end as a kid it seemed like an eternity before it came around again. As you get older the seasons seem to come and go faster and faster. So I think this happens as a matter of the time you have lived, regardless of everything else. Yes, doing enjoyable things can seem to go by quickly, but even my visits to the dentist go by fast now.

��� Paul Scelzo, Mon, 08 May 2017 03:01:31 UTC

I think age and how fast it goes buy depends on how healthy you are and how people your around are part of your life. I worked heavey labor jobs all my life and rode motercycles and had a life .Due to knee replacement I don't fill I have any form of life or desire to live and life just drags on I cant just will myself to die and I wont comit sucide. I cant walk good enough to work and at 66 I'm not going to retrain. All I can say is I seen more sun rises behinh me than I will ahead.. Don't fill sorryb for mwe I lived when I could

��� george anderson, Mon, 10 Apr 2017 17:20:17 UTC

it is because you think you are going to die and your brain is goig to explode by too much knowledge

��� fasih, Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:49:38 UTC

The observation that years seem to get shorter with age is simply due the ratio of experienced years vs. the current year. To a 12 year old, this year is about 1/12th of his life experience; to a 46 year-old this year is roughly 1/46th of his life experience. 1/12 = 8.3% of his life. 1/46 = 2.2% of his life. So, compared to a 12 year-old, a 46 year-old's year is roughly 4 times shorter.

��� Lance Parker, Sat, 01 Apr 2017 04:18:39 UTC

I think time feels like it speeds up because that's how our minds cope with the repetitive lifestyles most of us are living, 9-5 jobs. I think we would end up in a mental hospital if time didn't feel like it was speeding up.

��� Andre, Fri, 24 Mar 2017 11:02:42 UTC

I really think it has to do with responsibilities as we get older. When we are young, we play throughout the day, attend school with our friends. As we age, we get more and more responsibilities that take up our time and more importantly our thoughts. When we are focused on work, family, house, utilities, etc... it gives us less time to sit and enjoy the things that make us happy.

��� Kevin, Sun, 05 Mar 2017 02:49:32 UTC

Here's how I see it. Life is lived from back to front. We arrive the smallest ones. We are practically insignificant in what we can effect as regards Destiny, Fate, and Karma. We go forward by remembering the future. If we can remember it aright, which requires vision, judgement, and the powers of discrimination and discretion along with their sibling discernment. If we are tossed by the changing rides and lost at sea, it may take some time to get out bearingss, but we can get back on track by remembering the future, and when we depend solely upon electronic devices to manage our information databases and they break with unerring regularity the confusion forgetting causes makes time a runaway train without any certainty of course of course of direction . But we go forward by remembering the future and when we can we light trip to a balanced time that serves our contests and helps us to see forward the next lightrip to take. We end our physical lives and our bodieslives and see which Lightroom to take next, remembering the future.

��� Carter Lee Diggs Jr., Sat, 11 Feb 2017 03:28:14 UTC

If you want to slow down time, note down the important incidents that happened, read the personal mails you sent, go through your contact list, read again your rough book which will make you remember what all happened. As someone here said, our brain merges events together, which makes us feel time goes fast. Anoop from Kerala, `India.

��� Anoop, Fri, 10 Feb 2017 16:45:26 UTC

I did not read all comments so pardon me if someone has offered this theorh - it's mathematical: From birth to age 1, one year is 100% of your life. From age 1 to 2 that same year is 50%, then 33.33%, 25%, 20%, etc. By the time you're a Senior Citizen each year is a small percentage of your whole life and I think that is why they seem to fly by

��� Dianne Hutchison, Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:44:27 UTC

I have a possible theory as to why time keeps getting faster, and though making goals seems to be the reason why time goes fast it doesn't seem right.I think but i do not know, and I have a couple theories, that as time goes by possibly our memory slowly and slowly gets worse, and as it gets worse it remembers only important things and less unimportant things. Its hard to tell if its just getting more efficient or getting worse... and as it remembers less about every day, even only slightly less, each year will seem to go by faster. I came to this theory by thinking back to childhood memories, and seeing how clear they are, and how much "unimportant" memories i remember. But perhaps its not about memory, I dont know about this subject all that well either.

��� Eric Bronswood, Wed, 18 Jan 2017 16:38:51 UTC

Time goes fast, there will be a time when all humans die not because illness if you are religeus you will understand scintist beleve that some people die with no cause no illness no disease no hurt because God {Allah} said we are here to take the test to se who is pure evil and pure good Muslims believe that there is a day of judment where the earth is gone and you have a forever life in either hell or heaven there are steps of behaviour , and only god can judge that day god gave you brains so that you could control yourself and on the day of judment none can stop god the almighty the powerful one !

��� Ben, Tue, 27 Dec 2016 12:19:03 UTC

I only had to read the first three paragraphs of Yaffe's essay to realize that he is neither erudite nor particularly insightful. The explanation for why time seems to accelerate was quite adequately explained by one of the earliest commenter, Fred. Others have restated his case, but not as clearly or with as much brevity. Quo errata demonstrate -jon

��� Jonathan Potts, Tue, 20 Dec 2016 02:11:02 UTC

This is my truth. Times speed is relative to time lived. At 6 waiting a month for Christmas was 1/72 of my life. Seemed to take forever. At 60 waiting a month for Christmas is 1/720 of my life. Seemed to take no time. I have always been alive for 100% of my life. As I age the 100% continues to get larger and time seems to get smaller....or move quicker.

��� Foster Walt, Sat, 10 Dec 2016 12:34:37 UTC

Wow very well written article! I was looking for some answers, but this one nailed it! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's not depressed about this. Looking back at significant times that have passed is indeed depressing. The good thing is, we've also gone through the bad things. If I can relive it all again, I would, but this time I'll handle it better. Although, things may never happen the same way again.

��� Glenn Yeun, Mon, 31 Oct 2016 05:13:41 UTC

Actually Douwe Draaisma has a wonderful book on this: Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older: How Memory Shapes our Past published by Cambridge University Press (March 30, 2012)

��� Albert, Thu, 27 Oct 2016 13:10:40 UTC

Wow that's an old post but very rellevant indeed . I've had issue with time moving too fast for two years and i kind of figured out why. Being 20 now and looking back at school days and how my friends and i looked at things , what we thought , what we gossiped out , what we dreamed about all of this kind of fades away once you step out into the world of adult . I'm kind of an old soul already so what I'm saying might not be true for other people of my age but everything is kind of there after school . What i mean is it is accepted to go find a job a person you'll marry have kids etc instead of perusing exciting dreams and going on adventures most of us choose the normal ( standart ) pass of life and i guess this comes with the realization that almost all of your dreams would need money and budget to fuffil and teens and kids don't really think about what it would really take to accomplish their dreams .. Plus seeing everyone around you doing their job makes you move fast and do it too and you do it as others said on auto mode not realizing how you kind of left your childhood dreams out.

��� Annie , Tue, 06 Sep 2016 21:20:06 UTC

What an interesting article. I have always wondered that myself. I have always said, time should go by fast when you're young (as the young always want to get older faster anyway) & slow down once we reach....perhaps 30? You make an excellent point when explaining about the anticipation of things making time pass. It makes sense. The only way to slow down time is not to look forward to anything. Time would drag on forever if you had no excitement or dreams, hopes & plans for the future! I would not enjoy life very much living it like that. I am happy to let the years fly by if it means having surprises, fun, & excitement in my life. It's always been said, 'live life to the fullest' & we only have the one go round so let the time march on b'c that's exactly what I intend to do! I am almost 60 now but in a couple of years I'll be 80, by life's time passage, & I have a lot of livin' left to do! Have a great day :)

��� Sue Robinson, Thu, 18 Aug 2016 05:36:47 UTC

Bullshit Time is moving faster because of technology. Period.time gaps are faster and shorter. There no privacy.distance.mystery.it talks About it the kabala.time moving faster.use Your common sense.think out of the box.it Makes you think of the time machine.very dangerous? Ythe Whiteman is too smart for his own good. Faris Cowart

��� faris cowart, Sun, 31 Jul 2016 22:43:16 UTC

I think it has what was written, as well as something I read some time ago. When you learn to drive, it is tough and demanding, but once you get a hold of it, then it gets natural. So natural that you just do not realize what you just did; you just went. Your brain does not recognize that task, because you got so used to it that now it went on "automatic". And so does our life. Having a routine where there is no challenge, keeps our life in "automatic", so you do not proper feel (or live) those moments. Our lives are already packed with complete time wasters; I am 44 now. Given that I will live until I am 80, gives me 36 years of life. Given that I sleep 8 hours a day, or 1/3 of the day means that I will sleep 12 years of my remaining life. Another big chunk will be wasted on worthless things, like working, eating, and moving around. It is like waiting one hour on the line for a roller coaster ride that lasts one minute. Inevitable, but one sure way to feel better is to keep the brain working. Learning a new language or to play a musical instrument helps a lot. And so does changing your routines, the things you consume, the places you go. Otherwise, your remaining years will go on "automatic".

��� Gustavo , Tue, 05 Jul 2016 05:16:26 UTC

Hello there! I absolutely loved the way you answered the question, Mr.Philipp! I'm 15, and from India. I've been wondering about this time related stuff since the past two years and your answer has made me fully satisfied. I'm really NOT looking forward to growing up, but on the other hand I want to stand on my own legs and become a successful guy. I know, it's gonna come (and fast). In no time we would be in our 80's (if one manages to live that long, haha.) and would be looking back at our life! No one wants to lose their loved ones but that day isn't far away too, and when it comes we'll feel devastated. BTW, I have some tips if you want time to move slowly: 1. Notice details: I assure you this is gonna work. By noticing the smallest details, you can make time move slowly. 2. Avoid using smartphones, PCs and Laptops for long hours. They are just time killers, more like gasoline which accelerates time. Thanks!

��� Rajat Govind, Fri, 27 May 2016 10:03:25 UTC

I started reading this and automatically stopped at the first word. Persons? Really? The plural for person is people.

��� Fred Guevara, Fri, 06 May 2016 07:14:26 UTC

My parents had me in their mid-30s, so they were already entering middle age when we'd go to the mall or a public place. I'd want to burst forth and they were always telling me to slow down or "we can't move as fast as you can". I think physical slowness makes days go by quicker. I had an ankle surgery which required months of using a knee scooter to get around. It was exhausting just to eat and do laundry and obviously the days went by quicker. Also, I've noticed my daily tasks have not changed much since college. Entire weeks fly by. One week is indistinguishable from the next and the pay checks are all about the same. However, anticipation for an event does punctuate things.

��� J, Mon, 02 May 2016 14:51:17 UTC

I am only 15 years old, but I understand this concept very well. I will soon finish my freshman year of high school- it feels like I just started! I totally understand where Philipp Yaffe is coming from when he explains that anticipation makes an event seem so far away. I had so much anticipation last summer before I started high school, and I cannot believe it has almost been a full year since then! Thank you for sharing this concept of how time ties into emotion. It is nice to hear an educated answer rather than a cliché comment such as "Time flies when you're having fun!" Thank you again.

��� Bethany Barnett, Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:36:20 UTC

Thank you for this article! I just turned 45 and was thinking where the hell the years went, and why they were going so fast. As I watch my parents get older in their 70's now, I get more and more depressed. I married once, never had children and never made anything of myself. And for that matter, watching all your friends succeed, and having all the things they want makes it worst... on the other hand, with time flying so fast you feel there is no time to accomplish anything, or succeed before it's too late.

��� Charles, Thu, 14 Apr 2016 03:19:46 UTC

I just started reading this article and was very amused. I was feeling like I was all alone with this state of mind. thank you

��� granny gee, Fri, 04 Mar 2016 19:38:18 UTC

I am '82' years YOUNG !!!! (great-grandmother of "4" - 2 boys and 2 girls !! My 'newest' one - little Gabriel - born 12/4/15. I would LOVE to have a copy of your article !!! Is this possible for me ??? Would LOVE to share it with them: ages, 16, 15, 10 - and now - little Gabriel (when he gets 'older' !! I'm SURE they could learn a lot from this article - as I have. Most likely - - learn to appreciate each day MORE !!!! Thank you !!!! Sincerely, Lois Kimberly

��� Lois Kimberly, Mon, 29 Feb 2016 16:36:01 UTC

A year has passed... Reading all these comments.

��� AJ, Wed, 10 Feb 2016 06:23:20 UTC

Great post. I think there are three reasons why there is a general consensus that time seems to be moving faster as we age. Firstly, novelty tends to slow down our perception of things. When we are young so many things are novel that it seems like so much more actually happened in the time span. Secondly, its the relativity thing, where as we age, we have more years under the belt, so each that passes seems like that much less. Thirdly, technology is speeding all sorts of things up. I think the information overload of modern day life is enough to make things seem like they are happening faster. The older you are, the more you pick up on this, especially as your ability to adapt may not be that which you had when you are younger.

��� James McSherry, Sun, 17 Jan 2016 19:56:24 UTC

Simple, time seems to go faster when we get older because we're constantly busy. To make my days longer, I wake up early in the morning so the day can last longer.

��� Gary, Sun, 29 Nov 2015 19:57:20 UTC

I personally think it's got to do with the older we get, the more we've dealt with situations, the more experience we've got and the less likely we'll be impressed since we have already seen so many things. This leads to our brain creating less vivid memories. When we grow older, we have so many routines in our lives that don't impress us anymore, which means our brain gets filled more and more by less vivid memories, making us experience time going faster and faster, because we have less impressive information to remember. When you're a child, everything impresses you. Your brain runs at a 200% learning effeciency rate to develop abilities. You store very vivid memories of the tiniest things because you're learning. You basically live every second of your live because you remember every second of your live. This makes you experience life going slow, relatively to when you grow older.

��� Zeep, Fri, 30 Oct 2015 10:53:43 UTC

It's simple. Imagine that at birth you're cognizant of time (or at least aware, full of memories that will last a lifetime). Your parents, for whatever reason, sit you down in front of the television from the moment you're born to watch the first Star Wars movie (perhaps they're huge fans). For the newborn, that first two hours and change of Star Wars movie is a literal eternity, the only time that baby has ever known. Thus when we're younger, things seem longer because we're comparing it to our lives. As we get older and have more and more experiences, two hours out of (for example) eighty years of living is a blip on the radar.

��� Kyle, Tue, 13 Oct 2015 21:07:26 UTC

My cheap philosophy is that none of what you are the people who posted comments is true. No I think that yes there are still 24 hours in a day but the earth is moving faster in it's axis or however that scientific situation happens. The hours are going faster. So are the minutes and seconds. That is also why we feel that the nights are shorter or daylight are longer. I think the whole world in it's sense of moving is out of whack.

��� Josefina Fonseca , Fri, 11 Sep 2015 01:54:57 UTC

Perhaps we can tell ourselves that we are 10 or 20 years younger then we are and this perception of time being 1/10th or 1/100th won't be relevant? As long as you are fit and healthy, why tell yourself you are old. I think when you are young, you can't wait to be older. Getting a drivers license, getting a later curfue; old enough to drink alcohol. All of these things are intriguing to us and we can't wait to be able to do these things, so time seems slower. As we accomplish many of our goals and our experiences accumulate, we yearn for more life, more experiences, more success; as the years go by and we don't enjoy those desires, we perceive that time is flying by and there isn't enough time to do these things. I hate it when people tell you that you look great for your age, imagine you have enough time and things may slow down. I once asked my 80 year old mother if she ever pondered that she may be gone in 10 years, she said; no, I just feel fortunate each day that I wake up and feel good. So maybe it is simply Year to year, month to month, day to day, hour to hour and so on.

��� David Robbins, Sat, 01 Aug 2015 03:28:20 UTC

I have been surveying people on this topic for some time & I pass my theory by them for their thoughts. I'd love to hear yours. Here's my theory: As children - right up to the age of 21 - we are constantly counting to our next birthday age. For example ask a child how old they and they will say "I'm 3 and a half" or "I'm nearly 4". Always rounding up or announcing the next age. And we do this right up to the age of 21. After 21 we don't count like that anymore. And it seems to take forever to get to the next age bracket. No-one looks forward to turning 30 or 40 etc. So I wonder if we gave ourselves our childhood perspective again by looking forward to our next year of age, would time "feel" like its passing slowly again?

��� Paula, Sat, 18 Jul 2015 02:36:01 UTC

This concept has been fascinating me for a while now and I tried to build an interactive website to explain it: http://maximiliankiener.com/digitalprojects/time/ I'd love for you to check it out.

��� Max, Mon, 13 Jul 2015 08:51:50 UTC

Its very compelling to understand time and how fast it goes without our realisation. From my understanding, i think time is becoming faster than ever is due to the tremendous pressure on nature. Days and night seems to be shorter and our watch goes fast than it used to be. I think we are experiencing a major shift which so many things will be unravel sooner than later.

��� Macdonald Ryntathiang, Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:10:47 UTC

this is really nice article and similar to my life story and reflecting my autobiography. in my opinion everyone face this situation once in their life span.

��� ravi, Thu, 04 Jun 2015 11:41:08 UTC

I have had this conversation numerous times in my life and the simplest, most accurate answer seems to be purely mathematical. The speed to which time goes by is relative to the percentage of life that we have lived. The more days, months, and years you have lived, the less of a percentage of your experiences and you life each day, month, and year is. This fact, in relation to your life, makes each period of time seem like it is going by faster as you get older, when we all know that time moves at a constant speed. A two year old feels like it will be an eternity until they reach their third birthday because on their second birthday they will have to wait one half of the life they have lived up to that point in order to reach their third birthday. Whereas, it will only take one fortieth of a fourty year old's life to reach their forty first birthday. I do remember as a child that summer went by faster than the school year but summer was also one quarter of the year and the school year was three quarters of it. Besides, fun times always seem to go by faster! Just my opinion!

��� Dan , Sun, 10 May 2015 23:00:04 UTC

Thanks Philip Yaffe. I tried to paste references, but it could not be posted, because it shown here as spam. What I tried to say was the quote "This too shall pass.", also has references to a Persian King, though I do not dispute that the reference to King Solomon, that might be much earlier. I wanted also to paste that quote that says ' that when we love, time is eternal " which is quote from Henry Van Dyke. This with reference the second comment of Loz Sun, that ends with " fast and slow", that time is no longer fast or slow for him.

��� Faried de Bruyns, Sun, 29 Mar 2015 22:14:26 UTC

I have read all the comments and articles and agree and discuss agree with some aspects. I travel, that's my hobbies. On trips for 2 weeks or so the times seems to fly by but I always have another trip ahead to look forward to slowing my perception on time. As each trip concludes I I think back to each trip which seem sooo long ago o ly to realise it was less then a year ago. During this time I also study at university, I fell I started ages ago but I mearly started 12 months ago. I feel that perception of time heavily relates to the amount of new information eking stored in out long term memory. The more information that is liked to a visual memory the slower time seems to past. I think back to last trip to Thailand 2014 march, which seems a long time ago. Where my last skiing trip seems long before that January 2014, and being home in Australia for Christmas 2013/14. All memories that's seem far in the past, but are just over a year ago. Thinking now in the extreme recent future. I have been to Prague, Budapest, Paris, Stockholm, London and many more spread over a 3-4 month period each trip seem a Long time apart but are separated by 2 weeks or so. So I challenge, saying that time is your way of linking memories. More memories slower time appears to pass.

��� Trent Targa, Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:30:58 UTC

Don't worry folks, it doesn't go by faster, its just that if you have routines or you happen to do something that is similar to something you've already done then the memories just become merged to those that are similar, making it seem like time went faster.

��� Donkeybeans35, Wed, 18 Mar 2015 07:02:08 UTC

Geez Mushypeapicker, aren't you a whiny jerk? The article is just trying to offer its own perspective on the matter you disrespectful douche. I honestly don't believe time goes faster as you get older since I'm in my 30s and time still seems to move the same for me.

��� WonderMan, Wed, 18 Mar 2015 07:00:00 UTC

If one more person posts about percentages I'll Scream . SHUT UP! And no more banging on about karmic BS or The all seeing Sky fairy crap and armchair ' scientists ' Repitition and work cause us to discard memories As nothing exciting has happened so time FEELS compressed Anything out of the ordinary will create a 'stand out' memory . Do enough out of the normal routine and you will feel that you have Packed a load into your life Unless you have an 'exciting' job in which case your Actually a tedious bore ME :- I just muddle on and moan about time passing just like the rest of The population

��� Mushypeapicker, Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:34:05 UTC

I perceive the "aging accelerated time" phenomena as our increase point of reference. For example; a year to a four-year old child is a fourth of their life, but a year to a forty-year old is only a fortieth of the total...a dollar to a millionaire is nothing, but a dollar to a homeless person is a wealth...we're all just becoming wealthy in years!(smile) Ten years has the same perception to me (62) as a year does to a child. As you increase in altitude, the range of vision increases (and you get nose bleed).

��� Darell Clem, Thu, 29 Jan 2015 03:28:47 UTC

I do see sense in your theory, Cenk, although I am extremely disappointed in you calling yourself very clever after failing to properly capitalize and punctuate.

��� Disappointed in Cenk, Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:47:39 UTC

scientist are always try to searching to the cell,i believe its wrong,problem is brain,after we born our brain memory is empty,when we start to learn our memory is getting full slowly,slowly, we people watching,reading,talking,learning...when we do this things we are getting old,i believe %100 that our grow old depented to our brain memory, I m not scientist but I m very clever.

��� cenk, Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:37:45 UTC

Les Barnes has it said just about perfectly=with his percentage theory. Wish I would have published it earlier because I have been explaining this theory to deaf ears for at least seven years now and they look at me either completely bored by my conversation or look at me like ... Well said Les!

��� neil casey, Thu, 18 Dec 2014 07:00:19 UTC

When you are young, there is not a lot of structure. You do not have timelines are deadlines to keep track of. As you age, you have to utilize your time efficiently. Since you're always looking at the time, and scheduling your time wisely, you are creating a timeline based on repetition. Even knew things are old like dinner and a movie. You always see a movie and have a dinner Friday night. Even though it's different, it's the same thing. Since our minds like to save energy, it makes it seem that every Monday is a same Monday every Tuesday is the same Tuesday every Friday nights the same Friday night and every weekend the same weekend. Therefore since were doing the same thing, there's nothing new to remember and time flies by

��� Sean Symons , Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:41:24 UTC

When you are say 3 years old, a year is a long time since it is one third of your life. When you are 60, a year is only one sixtieth of your life, so relative to 60 years one year goes very quickly since it is only a very short time (one sixtieth of your life to date). When you are two years old, a year is equivalent to half your life to date which seems like an eternity. I believe that the reason that time appears to speed up as we age is because each year that we age, a year is less time relative to our lifespan to date.

��� Les Barnes, Wed, 19 Nov 2014 04:01:35 UTC

I believe that time is about perception, if you placed a video camera facing a clock and watched the replay, it will show that time neither increased in speed or decreased in speed. I believe time is determined by how much attention you are paying to time

��� Matthew, Mon, 17 Nov 2014 03:12:47 UTC

I'm only 13 years old, but this is my theory. Memories. When your younger, you tend to do more exciting things. But as you get older, you do more boring things. I think things seem so far away, because you don't remember what happened imbetween then and now.

��� Sebastian, Thu, 09 Oct 2014 12:54:02 UTC

I had a hard childhood. Every day was like a month. I had an awful marriage for 20 years. I lived what it seemed for 50 years. The only joy I had was my daughter. Her childhood was like a rocket. It seemed she went from a baby to a 21 year old in just a few years. Then my marriage was worse when I was alone with him and the days drug on forever. I am now in a new marriage and I am so happy. Every day is such a wonderful blessing that I never want it to end. But it does much too quickly! I was telling my new husband we need to stop being so happy so time will slow down. I remember when I was a child and I had to sit in time out. Five minutes was an hour to me. Thirty minutes of my favorite cartoon felt like 10 minutes. Now I will sit in a Dr. office and wait my turn for an hour and not think a thing of it. Because I am happy. Time passes quickly when you are having fun! What a shame it can't be the other way around!!!!!!!

��� Denise, Mon, 29 Sep 2014 17:41:53 UTC

I think time is relative to how fast you are moving, and that it relates to humans, plants, and animals based on metabolism. The metabolic rate of a biological organism should determine that organism's perception of time. An unborn baby's heart rate is incredibly fast and as we age, it slows.Age (yr) Respiratory Rate (breaths/min) Heart Rate (beats/min) <1 30-60 100-160 1-2 24-40 90-150 2-5 22-34 80-140 6-12 18-30 70-120 >12 12-16 60-100 Lower limits of systolic pressure 0-28 days: 60 mm Hg 1-12 months: 70 mm Hg 1-10 years: 70 mm Hg + (2 age in years) Organisms like flies and even cats and dogs have a very high metabolic rate and also an inversely proportionate natural life span. It seems the faster we are moving the slower time feels, and the slower we are moving the faster time feels. The longer an animal lives, the slower the metabolic rate.

��� Mindy Leary, Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:21:28 UTC

I'm in Viet Nam , I'm 23 years old , I have just graduated from a university . I also felt at school very long time , and many. but now it is fast . I am afrait and regret .

��� Vi Quc Ding, Mon, 07 Jul 2014 18:48:34 UTC

Im 18 years old and every day that passes I makes me realize how fast have the last few years been passing...and it seems like every year it gets worse! Especially in my age group,every year is of a significant importance, firstly because these should be the best years of my life(in terms of fun,experiences and unforgettable memories) and secondly due to the fact that from one year to another I shall move from high school to college etc, while many things would be changing in my life just within a couple of years.

��� Nik, Fri, 06 Jun 2014 00:38:18 UTC

Well I'm only 14, yet I feel as though the months are going way to fast. Last year, it was at an OK speed, then suddenly new year eve happened. I was talking to someone about how the years were going faster. Then bam! Next Thursday is the beginning of May? The 5th month. After that another month and it'll be half the year gone!? So the length of time it felt like I had this half of the year will just repeat.

��� Harry, Sun, 27 Apr 2014 09:03:36 UTC

Beautiful! Yes! We just have to enjoy each moment. Doing the best that we can to improve any situation in a positive way can help make that happen :)

��� Kathleen Osborne, Sat, 19 Apr 2014 03:45:00 UTC

Indeed Dave Barling, I came to the same conclusion. For a day old baby, a day and a whole lifetime is the same thing. For a hundred year old man, a day is a tiny fraction of a lifetime. Experience changes our understanding of time.

��� Matt, Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:43:07 UTC

Here are my thoughts. When we are children, we are "in the moment" more. As teens and young adults, we have more responsibilities that take up our time. Young children don't have a grasp on the concept of having responsibilities because they are too young to take on responsibility. That is why they daydream more and are more "in the moment" Adults rush through tasks because they want to get back to the more pleasant things in life other than tasks. I think if we were to savor the moments of our lives, even while shoveling snow and Monday mornings and the time that passes while we are performing unpleasant tasks, time would slow down. Also, we have the benefit of knowing what the passage of a year or a decade feels like and I agree that the ratio of time passage to time lived has much to do with our perception of how any fragment of time feels to us.

��� Andrea, Sat, 05 Apr 2014 18:00:50 UTC

I see now that Dave Barling already gave nearly the same explanation that I did, but maybe even in a more understandable way. I agree with him.

��� Zen, Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:33:49 UTC

The way I always looked at it is this. When I was young, say 5 years old, the year that passed was 1/5 of my entire life, so it seemed like a long time. In my 20th year, which seemed to go by much faster, the year that passed was 1/20th of my life, which is a much smaller number. Since my life as a whole was so much longer than that year, the year seemed shorter than when I was five. As time goes on any portion of time, a day, a week, a month, a year, etc. is a smaller and smaller portion of our entire existence and so in our minds this smaller portion of our lives feels like it is passing faster.

��� Zen, Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:24:41 UTC

I get up at 7:00 AM Have a cup of coffee watch tv morning news while doing the daily crossword.. Next bathroom,Shower and shave .Dressing is a problem,as You arms don't have the reach they once had.Putting on socks belt threw pant loops,to button shirt sleeves is a task By the time I finish breakfast it's 10 or10:30Am. Three days a week I go to gym for a one hour work out cardio and light weights.Half hour ride to and half hour ride back.Home at noon time . When your age 73 You just do not move and think as fast as you did when you were age 63 It's not time It's your body slowing Your heart rate etc. BUT DON't STOP EXERCISE

��� Jack, Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:46:33 UTC

I too thought this phenomenon was due to the theory of relativity. However, my reading of Darwin reveal that this has to do with gravitational pull affecting the passage of time. Actually time being a perception, not a finite thing, is why time flies as we age. Like a previous writer stated, to a five year old a year is one fifth of their life. A day can seem endless to a child. At age sixty-three a year is a rather small portion of this life I have enjoyed. And each year that portion shrinks further. Perception...

��� Sue Holland, Wed, 05 Feb 2014 02:24:14 UTC

(moe's comment is at the bottom)

��� beachj, Mon, 03 Feb 2014 13:04:53 UTC

moe has a good point

��� beacj, Mon, 03 Feb 2014 13:04:20 UTC

time is a lie. like the good old saying live everyday like it is ur last. honestly tho if it is ur last day wouldn't u live it for yourself. as to live everyday like u have all the time in the world. then would u have time foreverybody and object. thus a child does not weigh time acts as tho he has a never ending supply. mean while u just passed a broken down car u could push.. u want to ... but u don't have time. thus the more time u spend for urself i have no time and the more time u spend on everything esle. as for happy seeming faster. it's simple u have to tunnels of speed the more empty one passes time faster. one is full of shit and the other is full of postive and happy moments. tell me which one can u travel faster through.. if all things are excitement and happiness. then crap shoot is painless since u will soon land in a bed of flowers after words. ask the poor man who can't divourse his cheating wife who works 80 hrs a week and still can't feed his kids .. his happy moments pass as fast as the rich mans bad moments

��� Derrick, Sat, 01 Feb 2014 23:34:30 UTC

yes time does seem to go by so fast and i'm a 22 yr. old young adult male fixing to turn 23 yrs. old on April 24, this year. and I wished i was a kid again literally, i wished medical science would find a way to reverse puberty(which i know is not possible, well not with this day and age), and if some scientist are looking for a way to prolong life make people live past the age of 100, the only way i see is to reverse puberty which is physically impossible well for now. but the way i see it if it was possible to reverse puberty say your 25 yrs. want to look like your 15 yrs. it would take ten years for your body to get back to that age, so you're chronological age would be 35 yrs. old with a body of a 15 yrs. and another example: you're 15 yrs. old right now and say you want to go back to being 5 yrs. and it would take ten year for your body to get that age, and you're chronological age would be 25 yrs. old with a body of a 5 yr. old and some people may or may not want to go back to that young of an age but some will for example. me.

��� Casey Anderson, Sat, 01 Feb 2014 01:48:51 UTC

The reason why time is slower when we are younger is simple. The brain is young and has not been damaged by our environment, diet and age. Our neurons are processed faster so we perceive the world in slow motion because what we see and feel is almost instantaneous. As we get older our brains are damaged from alcohol, smoking, our polluted environment and our diets. Our brain doesn't function as fast as it used to, therefore what we feel and see happens slower in time and that's why we perceive time as flying by. This experience is most notable during an adrenaline rush. Our brain functions faster so we can get out of danger and when we experience these rushes, time slows down as perceived by the one experiencing the adrenaline rush.

��� Jorge Fernandez, Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:27:27 UTC

I'm young, but I too notice that as time flows faster as I get older. I dispute the claim that it is our aging brains or metabolisms that contribute to this, because I have noticed this fact even as a young person with a developing brain and metabolism. I believe that the more new, exciting and novel experiences we have, the slower time seems to go over those periods. During the years of my life that have been filled with change and new adventure (e.g. my first job after university), those years seemed to go the slowest, but when I fell in to a routines those years went the fastest. Therefore the solution to make time go slowly, in my limited experience, is to not a) become more busy, nor is it to b) do less things, but rather it is to c) seek as MANY completely new things as often as possible.

��� Einstein, Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:31:49 UTC

Someone put forward the Theory of Relativity as the reason. I have to agree. When you are 10, a year represents 10% of your life, and seems to take so much longer to pass; when you are 50, a year represents 2% of your life to that point, hence seems to pass so much quicker. It's all relative.

��� Rick, Mon, 06 Jan 2014 03:21:44 UTC

science tells us,"if space is space is expanding at an ever increasing rate, then doesn't it mean that time must also be speeding be speeding up at a faster rate too?!

��� Brielle, Sun, 22 Dec 2013 14:05:21 UTC

Time goes faster because we tend to become more consumed with life as we age. We're Instead of just being ourselves, like a child, we take on many different roles - parent, worker, mediator, leader, partner.. We are just 'busier' mentally, and we're familiar with the phenomenon of time flying when you're busy - surely everyone has heard at work "there just aren't enough hours in the day". As a child I remember being bored very often. Now I don't have time to be bored, there's always something that 'needs' doing. And I reckon it follows that the more we take on the quicker time passes.

��� Paul, Sat, 07 Dec 2013 20:37:40 UTC

This format does not allow one to type anything of length!

��� Richard Neva, Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:04:21 UTC

The answer is simple, every biologist knows why: when you get older, the metabolic process starts slowly slowing down. Time does not get faster, but the processes in your body are getting slower and slower. Giving the impression that time goes faster. There is no way in stopping this. The body is simply getting out of sync of what was once a faster metabolic speed. See, this is why they say that time is relative.

��� AnonBio, Thu, 21 Nov 2013 22:55:12 UTC

the theory of relativity . The end. Thanks

��� tom, Mon, 18 Nov 2013 17:13:59 UTC

2) Brain Boredom, + Lived time Percentage I saw, on the V-souce video, that the time is passing faster, because 2 things, 1)(We are anticipating, and if we get that, we anticipated... we feel our brain is bored ant trying to go forward for interesting new parts, (for example if we saw a movie, many time we don't like to watch it because, we just seen that before) (and we see our life as a movie, and if we saw things many time before, we just want to skip to the interesting parts), Aged people, don't see many new things, and they feel, time passing fast. 2) The Each year is a smaller percentage of overall life perceived than the last. For instance, in your third year, the year you are living accounts for 0.33 of all of your life so far, but in your fourth, the year you are living accounts for on;y 0.25 of the total. And by the time you are 67, each year only accounts for about one one-hundredth of the life you've experienced. That's the best explanation I've found. Anyway, it's funny that more people don't talk about the acceleration of perceived time. It's kind of a big deal. Thanks. Andrew A. Peterson, Sun, 20 Oct 2013 07:07:50 UTC

��� Robert, Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:05:21 UTC

Guys, Gals, I've often pondered about time passing faster in older years. Thanks to all of you. I enjoyed and found very enlightening each of your thoughts on our aging process. All of you are correct. Thanks again.

��� Sue Cameron, Sat, 09 Nov 2013 04:36:22 UTC

Each year is a smaller percentage of overall life perceived than the last. For instance, in your third year, the year you are living accounts for 0.33 of all of your life so far, but in your fourth, the year you are living accounts for on;y 0.25 of the total. And by the time you are 67, each year only accounts for about one one-hundredth of the life you've experienced. That's the best explanation I've found. Anyway, it's funny that more people don't talk about the acceleration of perceived time. It's kind of a big deal. Thanks.

��� Andrew A. Peterson, Sun, 20 Oct 2013 07:07:50 UTC

I would also like to add that I hardly ever think of the future or past so for me this can not have relevance to my perception of time. I would also add that my first post my be slightly inaccurate as in fact time doesn't go fast any more but I was accurate in saying I don't feel as though the days are long or boring or that time drags. More accurately I am saying time always seem to go fast before my illness and with being debilitated and spending everyday alone most of the time I would have thought that time would have dragged but it doesn't feel that way but nieither does it feel as though it goes fast which was the inaccuracy of my first post. In fact time feels nothing to me, it neither appears to go fast or slow so may be there is something in that concept that will give me the answer about what time actually is rather than the idea of 'why time goes fast' especially as we get older. For me it points to time being a mental construct and as I now live more in the now I don't experience time as slow or fast as much as I used to it is rather just 'is' and by being present in the now eliminates any perception of 'fast and slow' - who knows.

��� Loz, Sun, 06 Oct 2013 20:28:27 UTC

Now work this out and does this fit into your understanding. I got very ill two years ago and it has left me debilitated at first bedridden two years later slightly improved but housebound and I can do very little both cognitively and physically. Before I got ill I was very active, four different sports and two jobs and as you would imagine time flew. Now I am ill I can barely look after myself, I do very little and yet time flies past just as it did before. So I got to think like you what this 'time' is all about. As a spiritualist I have read and heard a lot about time and how there is only the 'now' and also explanations about time being a mental construct created by the mind. However, it doesn't explain why my perception of time is still the same pre illness when I was very busy and now I am ill and I cannot be busy. Most people say don't you get bored at being housebound and not able to do much (this not doing much literally means that. I cannot sit and watch tv all day I haven't the capacity) and I bet the days are so long and they seem so surprised when I say no I don't get bored and the days go fast they are no long. It doesn't seem logical does it. Do I have the answer - No I am still contemplating it and may be one day I will get the truth about time. Until then it's about 'time' I finsihed this post and rested.

��� Loz, Sun, 06 Oct 2013 20:17:01 UTC

In case it has not been answered yet, here's a simple mathematical explanation as to why we think time goes faster when getting older. When you're 2 years of age, then 1 year is 50% of your life. Which is a very long time. Relatively, of course... However, when you're 100 years old, then 1 year is "only" 1 percent of your total life, which is a "very short time". Again, relatively... This makes us "think" that, the older you get, the faster time flies (which is, of course, absolutely not true). But it gives you that impression, since you have already had some time with which you can compare in length (of time). And that's the clue to the whole story. As simple as that...

��� Geert Vancompernolle, Sun, 29 Sep 2013 08:38:35 UTC

I love things stated in "laymen's terms," however, it's difficult for me to really understand your theory about time flying when we get older. I also suffer, honestly, from ADD. I've also heard the theory about age increments ... I can't remember the rest!. Whatever the reason or reasons for this 4X fast-forwarding of life, and I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling that time is flying, it REALLY depresses me. I'm a 53 year-old woman and I feel that the last ten years of my life didn't really happen - if you can understand that. Someone once suggested that if you are depressed about how quickly life seems to be going by, then just get a job that you hate! Maybe I'll do that. Thanks for your theory - it does make sense - sort of!?? Karen.

��� Karen Cox, Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:08:55 UTC

You don't have to be a scholar and a genius or spend your time thinking about why the years and seem shorter and just time is shorter. All you have to do is READ the bible, the greatest book ever written. It states that in the final days of this conclusion of this system or world as we know it, must fall. The days will seem shorter and all the features along with the short days is men puffed up with pride, self assuming, fierce in conduct, the king of the north and the king of the south will be budging each other..russia and us, daughters against mothers, people taking no note of the impending danger of this end, divisions among men,man made doctrines like false religions, haveing a godly devotion but proving false to its power, and many features listed in the bible so remember to do good in this life and have respect and fear for the one true God, God Jehovah in the name of his son Jesus

��� Lionel Rodriguez, Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:24:25 UTC

TIME ========== we look at it like this. when we are kids we have so many new things happen to us .just think about it for a couple of min.by the time we get to.well lets say 25.we have done a lot in live.so the days and weekend become the same . only today I was driving got to road works with men working .and started smiling I was thinking about the time my wife flashed the worker at the traffic lights .if you was to wright down the things you remember in the last year .how much paper world you need.

��� dave, Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:57:57 UTC

My view also is the same as Dave Barling's: we experience the length of a given unit of time, say one year, as a proportion of length of time we have lived.

��� Gabriel Segal , Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:43:12 UTC

Dave Barling your explanation is EXACTLY the same conclusion I came to. It makes PERFECT sense

��� Lee, Fri, 05 Jul 2013 07:39:01 UTC

I think alot of the explainations offered are getting way to technical. Maybe its as simple as "TIME REALLY IS RELATIVE". Here's how i think it works, on my 1st birthday my 2nd birthday was literally a lifetime away. On my 2nd birthday my 3rd birthday was only half a lifetime away, on my 3rd birthday my 4th was a third of a lifetime away, and so on. Skip forward to my last birthday my 44th, and my 45th is only 1/44th of my lifetime away. Anyone confused yet? So what im thinking is that our persecption of time passing is RELATIVE to the amount of time we have exsperienced. Does it make any sence to anyone else, or is it just me.

��� Dave Barling, Sat, 22 Jun 2013 12:22:43 UTC

My cat died in December last year, after 11 years of being together. I am 30 now and so that was roughly 1/3 of my life. I got a new cat 3 months later which seems like only a spec of time compared to that, and last week he died too after only having him for merely 4 months. I have been very extremely sad but I know this too will soon pass. As I grow older I will look back at this and barely remember this as any more of an instant of time, a mere flash of light compared to my whole life span. Now I wait eagerly for each day to end so that I can forget and be happy again.

��� Reuben, Sun, 16 Jun 2013 12:53:09 UTC

What if, as we age our brain's electric activity slows down , thus accounting for time dialtion making past events seem to run away faster while days seem to be bloody slow. It is after all , a basic calculation. It could also be relativity where its like a bunch of heart monitor waves that are short and well paced apart that slowly become longer but squish towards each other.

��� Navneet, Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:06:56 UTC

When I think back being in high school a year was a long time. I read an explanation for this, when you are 18yr old one year is 1/18th of your life, but when if you are 60yr old then one year is 1/60the of your life.

��� bob lou, Thu, 23 May 2013 01:00:31 UTC

I think it has to do with relativity. Not physical, but psychological. When you're young, say 6 years old, you doubled your age by the time you're 12. An eternity so to speak. When you're 60, the step to 66 is a mere 10% increase. You've already done that time frame 10 times instead of only once. Its probably accelerated by other factors such as being aware of time itself, and the societal norms and expectations that come with a certain age, etc... But I think the actual FEELING of time going by faster as we age has to do with our experience of past time passing by. The rate at which we double our age goes down, every day lived is shorter when looking at the whole life of a person than the previous day before. After all, all time is scientifically is motion of matter over distance, but psychologically that doesn't get us very far.

��� larry, Fri, 10 May 2013 17:20:41 UTC

An interesting theory put forward, many years ago, by Fred Hoyle, who uset be chief astronomer at Greenwich observatory, in England, was that, because the universe, our galactic journey, along with all other stars, planets, is in elliptic curves rather than circles, when we reach the extremity of the curve the distance betwixt the sides of the curve decreases sufficiently to compress or shrink time. Funnily enough, this lines up with Biblical prophecy concerning God's allowing man to perpetrate the destruction of this planet, stating that, "And except those days should be shortened there should be no flesh saved: but, for the elect's sake those days should be shortened" Mat.24:22 This lines up with another Scripture, "And sware by Him Who liveth forever and ever......that there should be time no longer." Rev.10:6 This has also been interpreted as, "no more delay", and surely provides an alternate concept to the fleet winged passage of what we call time. Time is a measurement of motion, so maybe it is time we all slowed down a bit?

��� John R. Nolan, Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:31:50 UTC

Thankyou Philip for your article and sharing your respected thoughts. Before reading this article I challenged myself to see if I could make my own theory of why years can go so fast yet days feel like a lifetime. My theory is that when you recall old memories your recalling on memories which had an impact on your life, whether it being from a 10 year olds perspective of riding your first bike or collecting cards, at that time of your life that was the most important/exciting thing happening so your 10 year old brain will save it. Nevertheless we will also remember our devastating thoughts just as much. Going into our teen years we will remember our first car, first kiss and so on and so forth. When you try to remember your past you will only remember the dramatic things depending on the age context, which wouldn't be much which makes time feel like it's going quick as there's only a small amount of memories to recollect on. As for the days which feel like years, you will remember waking up, going to work, coming home etc so at the end of the day you can recollect on many activities making the day feel long. Small and not so important knowledge or memories would not stay in our brain for long, we will eventually forget them. But, if every step we took, every lunch we had and every night we slept was embedded in our brain and we could remember them all, time won't be feeling like its going so fast. In conclusion, times going fast because we only remember a small amount of dramatic memories. So if you lie back and put your life on a timeline attaching your memories to a year, the amount of memories will decrease the more you rewind to the past and vice versa. The beginning of the timeline will seem short and empty hence making time in that period feel fast. It's like your brain refreshes every couple of days and wipes out all the irrelevant things but saves all the dramatic/exciting things, and as time goes by your brain starts eliminating older less dramatic memories. Ever thought of the saying "feels like yesterday" if you were to remember everything that happened from that memory till now it will feel like as long as it actually is. Regards, Mohammed, Sydney Australia.

��� Mohammed Tabbah, Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:08:59 UTC

when a rich man aquires a lot of money he alway wants MORE! maybe as we age and become more aware of time we want MORE! its greed and fear of death...

��� Val, Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:39:38 UTC

I enjoyed the essay/article on why time seems to go faster as we age. I think another reason is as we age, we become more accutely aware of the passing of time, and how we cannot hold onto the precious moments, as well as the negative times. I think maybe our fear of death may be part of this too. I believe if we learn to accept life on life's terms we will be a lot happier and lot less anxious. When I became a grandmother, I felt it helped me feel more comforable with aging and time passing. I suppose it's true about our offspring giving us a sense of inmortality.. Time is precious and how we use it should matter....

��� vee , Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:38:04 UTC

Source of translated article "Rejuvenation" is: www.astra-systems.net

��� ...Lina..., Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:08:12 UTC

Rejuvenation Those of you who are over 30 years old or more, are familiar with the phenomenon of acceleration of time. As a child, all of us feel that the time is very slow. The more old you are, the more clearly you see, that calendar year in childhood or adolescence is not the same time feel, when we reach adulthood. In the subconscious of human there is a biological clock, which determines the aging process. The speed of biological clocks is not the same during our life time. People do not get old proportionally to their calendar age. Some look much older than his years, others - younger. Now, imagine a spiral in the form of a cone. The widest turn of a cone, at the bottom of a spiral, the shortest turn - on top. That's a spiral of your lifetime. Being born, the man starts to move up through the spiral. Repetitive events in his life, is nothing but lessons of life: and if the previous turn of the life problem is not mastered, it is repeated at the next turn of the spiral. The man squeezes the spiral of the time, when no efforts are being made to realize and accept the lessons of life. In this case, it significantly accelerates his aging. Some people do not learn how to solve their karmic problems. The spiral of their lives is very short, full of illnesses and misfortunes. In principle, everyone can run in subconsciousness a different time scale, i.e. you can make time not to shrink but to expand. What it gives? 1. Slowing the aging process with subsequent rejuvenation of organism. 2. Getting rid of the existing illnesses and disease prevention in the future. 3. Harmonization of the individual, his enlightenment, relief from the burden of karmic problems. 4. Significant prolongation of life. When you look at your photos in youth, you notice that they cause the certain feelings, typical to you at that time of photo. So, if these images and emotions to back up in a certain way by audio signal, that modulated with low frequency waves, the subconscious begins the process of verification of the "current time" with the timeline of period from photo. This allows you to reload the internal clock on a countdown, to slow the aging process and the beginning of rejuvenation. The next steps are to work with audio discs that allow gradually expand the "turns of the spiral." Using disks provides for active and passive meditation, complex of breathing exercises. By itself of rejuvenation technique, known for a very long time. We just perfected it and brought it into technical aspects related with rapid development of computer technologies

��� ..Lina.., Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:40:47 UTC

The bottom line : When youth is gone, the party is over ! I have watched how womanizers and the "Belles of the Ball" have frantically tried to continue doing what they used to do only to find that find people were just not interested anymore. I've seen them make desperate, angry attempts to rekindle something that no longer existed. Not being able to get over how time changes things, some have found solace in the bottle and talking always about the dayz that are no more.

��� Peggy, Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:20:44 UTC

I have often thought about the subject myself. The best explanation I ever heard on the subject of time passing so quickly is as follows: To a four year old, a year is one quarter of his life. To a forty year old, a year is only 1/40th of his life. The forty year old preceives a year as a smaller piece of his whole life.

��� Mike Herries, Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:02:38 UTC

HI, the last comment may be one of the reasons why time is peceived to moving faster. In my own opinion,when we are young at an early age, =there are many roads of opportunities in front of us. We believe that there is time to take each and every road in the coming years.But at an early age , in childhood, we do not think about who will cook for the dinner, who will pay the utilities, who will go to the shop ... briefly we didnot think about responsibilities.So in childhod we are surrounded by parents who are young and perceive that there are plenty of time and every thing is easy. As we get older, we start to realize that we have to take our own responsibilities, so have to sacrifice some activities, we have to earn a living ... to be able to get our basic needs...like food, shelter and ave to assure our existence. All these are often measured in terms of money. Our spectrum of activities are governed byour means and money. The less money we have the less activities we are exposed , thsu wehave to work much more.. hence we do not have time. We must at the same time , try to raise our own family, again some time to sacrifice for extra activities.We can't also do extra extra activities like travelling all the year, we have to work to earn money ... the more things we want to do .. the more time we should invest to have the means to do those... but the less time is left at the end. At very very old age.... we have to concentrate on essential things of life .. about how to earn a decent standard of living, health ...and notime to do all things we dream about when we were younger...hence no time ... and no time to pursue other career ..s no time to satisfy all our wants ....

��� alan, Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:08:46 UTC

Well here's food for thought .i the last time I was on vacation.the time for some reson slowed down and it felt like I was off for a hole month but it was just a week.i think as we get older we have so many plans and to many goals.may be just may be.every once in awhile ,we just need to not have anything planed.just like when we were 3 or 4 before we went to school.we had nothing planed and we were free thoughts.may be we just need to have a nothing day or week.get back the mind of. Child.or if you have trouble getting into it then take a younger one on a walk or a hike.and let them take the leed.and follow them and you will be surprised at what we as grown ups miss out.thiers nothing like the mind of a child.

��� Redwing, Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:39:24 UTC

I think it has to do with perception. As we get older, each year becomes a smaller percentage of our lifetime.

��� Fred , Wed, 30 May 2012 13:57:56 UTC

Thanks for your article. Makes a lot of sense what you wrote. I am a born again Christian and I often wonder sometimes if it is God Himself that is simply turning up the progression of time and making it move along faster. :-)

��� Roger, Sat, 19 May 2012 13:40:56 UTC

Your article makes sense. It also spurred my thoughts around this issue. With that age of technology we seem to see our lives flash by even more so by the millisecond. There now seems to be a requirement for immediate response. I remember the day when one would post a letter and wait expectantly, a couple of weeks perhaps for a response. Now life does not seem to have many areas that require one to look forward with anticipation. Children often get what they want, when they want it. Email, twitter, facebook, and other means of social networking have changed the way we communicate with one another. Life moves quickly. Babies still take 9 months, for now. Everything else, like big purchases, people just finance it. No waiting around to save for it. We work longer to pay for things we don't need. I believe it is those days without work, without the internet, without social networking, without television, that I'm holding a sweet new grandchild, that time slows down for me.

��� Mary Furnas, Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:55:21 UTC

i often wonder if its to do with my brain slowing down, making me feel like everything is going faster as i try to keep up. Im only 30 but i keep looking back to when i was 20, i already feel my best years are behind.

��� lindsey, Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:28:44 UTC

Thank you Philip for the article - and the others for enhancing comments. This article and the comments remind me of a comment I heard in the movie, Hombre (starring Paul Newman) where an old man character said: "It's shocking to get old...". The "anticipation", and "retrospection" seem to be the two main ingredients built into human psyche that make humans to both look forward to future events and in the meantime re-adjust themselves against upcoming events - almost like a feedback loop! Perhaps it is the feedback loop that sometimes act as "time accelerator" and at other times as "time decelerator".

��� Seif, Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:13:55 UTC

Thank you Philipp Yaffe for sharing these interesting thoughts. As we're drifting through the time we already belong to eternity.

��� Christian Schorr, Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:11:11 UTC

As we age, everything we do slows down like an old motor. Time is a constant that we humans slide on. The rate of speed is measured in hertz. As we age this frequency drops i.e our ability to perceive things are much slower hence creating the illusion that time is moving faster.

��� moe, Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:34:30 UTC

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