This is why time slows down or speeds up depending on your state of mind

BGR

A boring meeting drags on endlessly, while hours vanish when you’re engrossed in a favorite hobby. This curious perception of time has fascinated researchers for years, with explanations ranging from information processing to altered states of consciousness.

Time seems to slow down in unfamiliar settings, researchers write in an article published on The Conversation. A week abroad, surrounded by new sights and sounds, feels much longer than a week at home. Similarly, boredom or pain can stretch time, while states of deep absorption, like painting or playing music, seem to make it fly.

Interestingly, most people report that time speeds up as they grow older—a phenomenon linked to the reduced novelty of daily life. Our experience of time may hinge on how much information our minds process. When confronted with new stimuli, like a foreign environment, the brain works harder to process details, creating a stretched perception of time.

In contrast, during focused activities, attention narrows, the mind quiets, and time contracts, making it feel faster. In more extreme cases, time radically slows down in what researchers call “time expansion experiences” (Tees). These occur during emergencies, like car accidents, or moments of heightened awareness, such as during intense sports play or deep meditation.

Around 85 percent of people report having at least one Tee in their lifetime. During Tees, people often describe feeling calm and having extra time to think or act. For instance, an individual avoiding a falling object might recount a slowed-down moment that allowed them to make split-second decisions.

Tees are also common in sports, where a stretched perception of time occurs during high-stakes plays and in peaceful settings, like meditation or connecting with nature. Scientists have proposed several theories for Tees.

A fight-or-flight response involving noradrenaline might explain some cases, but it doesn’t account for the calmness people often report. Others suggest Tees evolved as survival mechanisms or that they are illusions created by enhanced memory encoding. Most participants, however, insist these experiences happen in real-time.

Altered states of consciousness may hold the key. In moments of intense focus or presence, our sense of self fades, merging us with our surroundings and reshaping our perception of time. Is time just an illusion? Some think so. Either way, these moments remind us that perhaps time is more than just a ticking clock—it’s a deeply personal and fluid experience.