{"id":853593,"date":"2026-09-19T20:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/853593\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T20:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:26:13","slug":"why-the-days-feel-shorter-as-you-get-older-according-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/853593\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the days feel shorter as you get older, according to science"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cTime flies.\u201d It\u2019s a phrase you\u2019ve probably heard \u2014 or said yourself \u2014 as the weeks, months, and years add up and life marches rapidly forward<\/a>. But is there any truth behind the feeling that time speeds up as we get older?<\/p>\n

Researchers have spent years investigating why time can seem to pass more quickly with age<\/a>. A 2019 study<\/a> published by Cambridge University Press identified a scientific \u201cmisalignment between mental-image time and clock time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason is that the measurable \u2018clock time\u2019 is not the same as the time perceived by the human mind,\u201d the study revealed. While clock time refers to the literal 24-hour day, \u201cmind time\u201d is shaped by the images and experiences we accumulate throughout our lives.<\/p>\n

Mental healthcare company ReachLink<\/a> has identified five possible reasons time appears to speed up as we age, with the first being something known as proportional theory.<\/p>\n

At age 10, one year of life<\/a> represents 10 percent of everything you\u2019ve experienced. But at age 50, that same year represents just two percent of your life experience. That\u2019s what the proportional theory is at its core: the idea that each new year of life decreases as a fraction of the whole.<\/p>\n

\"MultipleMultiple studies have analyzed why the days feel shorter as you age (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The company also pointed to novelty deficit as another factor that contributes to time acceleration.<\/p>\n

Novelty deficit is the idea that memory doesn\u2019t record time evenly, but instead remembers distinct events. When your routine looks largely the same week after week and month after month, there are fewer new memories to distinguish one period from another. As a result, time can feel compressed when you look back on it.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s attention absorption, which occurs when your brain goes on autopilot during familiar or habitual tasks, making you less aware of the passage of time. When you\u2019re absorbed in a task, your cognitive resources are focused elsewhere, meaning checking the clock takes a back seat.<\/p>\n

Emotional flattening is another factor. Experiencing big emotions \u2014 fear, anxiety, and excitement, for example \u2014 leaves a lasting impact. Feelings of burnout<\/a>, stress, and monotony compress time because they form thin, interchangeable memories.<\/p>\n

The fifth factor is dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, reward and the brain\u2019s processing of time. Dopamine levels can change as we age, and ReachLink suggests that this may contribute to our perception that time is moving more quickly.<\/p>\n

\"ThereThere are legitimate reasons why days feel shorter as you age (EPA)<\/p>\n

Keeping all of this in mind, there are steps you can take to try to slow time down and create moments and memories that break up the routines established later in life.<\/p>\n

Mechanical engineering professor and author of Time and Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies, Adrian Bejan, previously told The Independent: \u201cSlow it down a little more, force yourself to do new things to get away from the routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreat yourself to surprises. Do unusual things,\u201d continued Bejan, who authored the Cambridge University Press study.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you heard a good joke? Tell me! Do you have a new idea? Do something. Make something. Say something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[308,79],"class_list":["post-853593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-horizontal","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}