Spring already? Why time seems to fly as we grow older | Human world

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As you get older, time seems to go faster and faster, especially when compared to the endless days of childhood. Why do days and years seem shorter as we get older?

The answer is a question of physics, says Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University. According to Bejan's study published on March 18, 2019 in the newspaper European Reviewapparent temporal discordance can be attributed to the ever slower rate at which images are obtained and processed by the human brain as the body ages. Bejan said in a statement:

People are often amazed at how much they remember days that seemed to last forever in their youth. It's not that their experiences were much deeper or more significant, it's just that they were treated in rapid fire.

Bejan attributes this phenomenon to physical changes in the aging human body. He explained that as entangled networks of nerves and neurons – the fundamental units of the brain – matured, their size and complexity grew, resulting in longer paths for signals. As these paths begin to age, they also degrade, providing increased resistance to the flow of electrical signals.

These phenomena make sure that the rate of acquisition and treatment of new mental images decreases with age. This is demonstrated by the frequency with which infants' eyes move relative to adults, said Bejan – because children process images faster than adults, their eyes move more often, acquiring and integrating more information.

The end result, Bejan said, is that as older people see fewer new images in the same amount of time, it seems to them that time is running out faster. He said:

The human spirit feels time change as perceived images change. The present is different from the past because the mental vision has changed and not because someone's clock is ringing. The days seemed to last longer in your youth, as the young mind gets more pictures over the course of a day than the same spirit in old age.

Conclusion: why time seems to go faster with age.

Source: Why days seem to shorten as we get older

Via Duke University