Perception of the passage of time

D

Darth Tagnan

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So, how do you guys/gals account for how time seems to pass at different speeds, under different circumstances.

For instance, I find that when I've had too much to drink - and I'm having a good time being somewhat inebriated, time actually passes slower.

This is strangely opposite to when I'm sober (like now) - and time seems to pass faster the more fun I'm having.

Also, of course, the older I get - the less time there seems to be in a day.
 
It does feel like there are less than 24 hours in a day at this day and age. When I was a lot younger I felt there was plenty of time. It actually ended when I got kids. From that time on, the number of hours in a day never felt like enough. It got somewhat better when they got older though.
 
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Its been long known there are more than five sense. Case in point, a sense of time.

How we sense time is pretty fascinating. I don't remember how exactly but I recall it has something to do the comparison of multiple sensors.

Consider the times you were in danger or an accident. You ever notice that time slowed down and you can remember every little detail or the events you describe that when you described them the details sound like it took minutes even though you know it was in seconds, or fractions of a second.

Your brain is really slowing down your sense of time as a way to help you deal with the emergency.
 
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I've read somewhere that we don't perceive the passage of time linearly, but as a fraction of our life. For example, to a five year-old a year seems like a long time since it's the fifth of their life, but to a fifty year-old it's only a fiftieth of their life. That's why, when we were kids, New Year or our birthday next year seemed so far away, but now a year flies by in a heartbeat.
 
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Darth Tagnan said:
For instance, I find that when I've had too much to drink - and I'm having a good time being somewhat inebriated, time actually passes slower.
Click to expand...

yes, and days where nothing happens passes by really quick. I'm guessing the same-olds are filtered out by the brain as something it doesn't even need to register/process. But when something interesting or new occurs it begins to register and it also has to process some stuff, time is then perceived as slower since its registered.

When we are kids there are new things happening almost every day, so tons to process, the brain is developing and very little is filtered out as the usual fluff we've seen 1000 times before.

December was so crazy fast this year (edit: well, last year). I remember it as the month of the year where stuff happened. Now i can hardly remember what i did that month, probably because i did nothing out of the ordinary.
 
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I think that the nature of time, how it relates to consciousness, and how our neurological systems interact with it, are not at all well-understood. In fact, I'd say it cuts right to the heart of the some of the most perplexing questions we face.
 
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Yeah, it's a scary thought that we perceive time as there being less of it in a day, the fewer days we have left.

I remember, as a kid, I used to imagine what it would be like to be a fully grown man with his own family and what not. Of course, I haven't managed to actually create a family - but I'm certainly fully grown.

Used to seem like something that would happen in another age.

Now, at 42, I get the sensation that I'll be turning 80 in the blink of an eye.

I read somewhere that the most unhappy age - on average - is actually the 40s. Supposedly, people in their 50s are happier and that should last until well into old age.

I'm actually not unhappy - but I'm definitely not satisfied with how much time has passed without me feeling like I've accomplished anything.

Oh well, didn't mean to turn it into a sob story ;)
 
40’s is transitional so that makes sense. You career fate is crystal clear by late 40’s. People in their 50’s tend to stop giving a sh*t about job politics and start planning at least a semi retirement, final career change etc. Kids are firmly in college typically so that financial reality is finally being accepted. Midlife crisis toys are all bought. Wife 2.0 etc. I’m in all the above categories just shy of 50.
 
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Haha, sounds like I opted for the wrong path. Typical of me to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing :)
 
Time goes by faster, if you do the same things over and over again.

If you try something new, when you get older you are a kid again and time goes by at a normal rate again.

The other factor is that you see time differently when you get older .
The main question "How much time do I have left?" gets more and more important when you get older. Are some life-goals left that I haven't reached yet?
 
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Good point about breaking the pattern to change time perception. I plan on leaving a lucrative job to move 14 hours away. Bought land there already. Don’t even know if I’m going to find a decent job and not sure I care!
 
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On certain days, I perceive the passage of time slower or quicker as I'm sure many people do. Typically, things go at a steady pace and I have a sense of time based on my internal clock. But on rare occasions, I'll be at work, look at the time, and much to my surprise it's almost lunch. On days like that, I often wonder if time progressed at its usual pace or simply sped up, with my internal clock essentially being off.

Now that could just be my perception of time, where I was so caught up with my projects that my sense of time essentially became suppressed until I had a moment to spare and look at my watch.

We always say that time passes by when you're having fun. However, I've also perceived time progressing at a slow pace when I'm enjoying myself, too. I don't think they're exclusive to one another.

Since the Earth is not on a perfect axis around the sun, and gravity influences the flow of time, do we experience time differently? Does time actually slow down, or do we slow down? We think time is linear and constant because that's what we've come to understand as limited life forms. We know we can't change the past. But what if time could slow down? Assuming it could, would we perceive it differently? What would we use as a point of reference to understand it accelerating or decelerating?
 
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Time passes by at the same rate in my case except when I'm being torured - it never ends.
Faster than usual, never. Slower than usual, ah well, every now and then I'm faced to stall&grind at work. And then I get home to try a new game not expecting stall&grind, kust to leave it eventually only to discover it's still not midnight. Then I turn on an overrated mainstream show to try it, and in 99% of cases it's yet another stall&grind (examples: walking dead, outcast). Somehow that day ends and I'm feeling it like it lasted 72 and not 24 hours.
Grinding needs to be outlawed.
 
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Well, the more you overclock your CPU the more frames per second you get but you don't get any more seconds.
 
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No, I'm in Denmark :)

I'm staying in Denmark - but it's 135 kilometers away from here (if all goes well with the house I'm looking at). It's a very small country - so that's a very long distance around here, hehe.
 
I'm moving 847.3 miles away to a quiet culdesac where I will finally have my detached dream garage with a lift & welding equipment, compressor that isn't 40 years old etc. What truly amazes me is how much drama in my life will vanish in the blink of an eye the day I walk off my current job for the last time. What people there think is so damn important astonishes me. That MUST affect perception of time or minimally affect the value I attach to it. Right now its purgatory. Well working hours that is.

What sort of development? I plan to manage cloud conversions for companies looking to exit their data centers since that's what is effectively I'm doing now. Sadly I haven't coded since 2006. Can't tell you how much I miss just sitting in a cube coding.
 
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