Does Time Really Fly?

By mindysmart • February 5th, 2010

The perception of time seems relative to one’s age. What causes the feeling that “time flies”? It seems that life has played out in fast-forward mode, much like it has for Homer Simpson in “Every Day.”

Homer Every Day from Noah K. on Vimeo.

NPR’s “Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?” (Robert Krulwich) puts that very question to neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine. He proposes that when we are young, we are establishing many “first” memories — the first day of school, the first friend, the first kiss — and these experiences seem long and rich.

“The list of encoded memories is so dense, reading them back gives you a feeling that they must have taken forever. “But that’s an illusion,’ says Eagleman. ‘It’s a construction of the brain. The more memory you have of something, you think, Wow, that really took a long time!’”

According to Eagleman’s findings, brains use more energy to imprint a memory when the experience is original. Children are not the only ones who create first memories. As adults, we may try to slow the pace of time by creating new “firsts.”