The saying ‘time flies‘ seems to become more of a reality as we age. One moment, you are a careless child, and then, in the blink of an eye, you are an adult with many responsibilities. And while scientists have yet to find the answer to why it seems our lives pass us by, they have formulated a theory.
Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told DailyMail.com: ‘One is that when we are older, we tend to have lives that are more structured around routines, and fewer of the big landmark events that we use to demarcate different epochs of the ‘time of our lives.’ Lustig added that we have fewer experiences to reflect on as children.
For a five-year-old, one year is 20 per cent of their life packed with experiences as they discover the world around them. However, the same amount of time is only two per cent of a 50-year-old’s life that likely has fewer new experiences. Lustig explained that our brains combine similar days and weeks, which seems like everything blends.
Humans gauge time by memorable events; as we age, those are few and far between. This is why most people can recall something they have done once rather than hundreds of times. Another theory floating around the scientific community comes from Adrian Bejan at Duke University, which suggests time flying is due to an ageing brain. Bejan released his research in 2019, which states our perception of life experiences may be skewed as we age, and our brains require more time to process new mental images.
Earlier in life, on the other hand, the brain can take on new information in ‘rapid-fire,’ allowing it to process more in the same period – making the days seem to last much longer than they might later on. According to Bejan, the physical changes in our nerves and neurons play a major role in our perception of time as we age. Over the years, these structures become more complex and eventually degrade, creating more resistance to the electrical signals they receive.
According to the researcher’s hypothesis, the degradation of these key neurological features causes the rate at which we acquire and process new information to decline. Infants, for example, move their eyes much more often than adults because they’re processing images at a faster rate, Bejan said.
For older people, this means fewer images are being processed in the same amount of time, causing experiences to seem as though they are happening more quickly. However, Lustig told DailyMail.com that Bejan’s research does not add up. ‘He makes some argument about the length of the optic nerve related to head size, and I will let you judge whether an 80-year-old has a substantially larger head than a 25-year-old,’ she said. ‘There are other issues with his perspective, but this probably makes the point.’
