Does Time Speed-Up As You Age?

[yuiyoshida]

By Dr Neil Flanagan


At this time of the year, we usually hear statements like this: 'It's the end of the year, already. Hasn't the year flown by?'

Annual events seem to come around even more quickly as we age. Gandhi was 78 when he made this observation, ' I accept that as we grow older the clock runs faster and we slower'.

Time really does seem to accelerate with age. J. B. Priestly accounted for the acceleration by observing that a year is a much smaller fraction of an older person's life than it is of a child's. Alexis Carrel attributed the acceleration to the gradual slowing down of our inner rhythms or metabolic processes. But does time really speed-up as we age?

For something we really don't know much about, we've become obsessed with time. We've become increasingly time-bound, aware that our lives have a time limit. Men, we're told, have approximately 600,000 hours and women have 700,000 hours. We know how to save time, spend it, and manage it. We've learnt how to compress more and more into the time available. We make money charging for our time, and accept that money won't make us more time. And we've also learnt that the demands of everyday life can be so time-consuming that there's no time left to do the things that we'd really like to do: we run out of time to enjoy time.

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[PeoViejo]

1. Life is short, act accordingly.

[Xipe Totec]

2. I have my own theory of time

We measure time by the new experiences that we have. As we grow old, less and less of what we experience is new, so each day is no different from the last. If all that happens today is the same as what happened yesterday, how can we tell yesterday and today apart?

So the answer is simple. If you want time to stretch out, all you have to do is seek new experiences each day.

[dorkzilla]

4. That is a great way to approach life!

...and new experiences keep your brain more agile as well! Good theory to live life by. Thanks!

[RiverLover]

5. I heard that exact same explanation on NPR from a scientist.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/02/01/122322542/why-does-time-fly-by-as-you-get-older

[Xipe Totec]

6. GMTA... :)

Glad to see that I'm not totally out on left field.

[RiverLover]

16. Pretty insightful, you are. But hopefully ur in the left field like me!! :-)

[Kaleva]

10. I'm 55 and I could, I guess, start up a meth lab.

I'll start living in the gangsta's paradise and see if time does slow down.

[Mr.Bill]

15. It will slow down

once you are in jail.

[Kaleva]

19. A place where I'll meet new and interesting people!

That is assuming I survive the shootout with DEA, the state and local police first.

[PasadenaTrudy]

33. Sky high stacks, yo. n/t

[Ishoutandscream2]

48. Wonderfully stated

I think you make an excellent point.

[GreatGazoo]

64. Yes. I have been Spurlocking and it works that way.

Spurlocking, named for Morgan (SuperSize Me) Spurlock is the practice of making a significant lifestyle change for a finite period of time. I challenged myself to make 12 videos in 2 weeks, start farming, writing a cookbook, and this winter plan to form a Talking Heads cover band and play 5 songs on open mic night.

Others on my list:
- give up TV for 30 days
- eat nothing but local foods for 30 days
- live in NYC for 30 days
- make a documentary on dogs in 30 days
- live in Florida for 30 days

[Arugula Latte]

71. When you're young, you're always starting a new phase of your life.

Starting school! A new classroom every year! On to middle school! On to high school! On to college or starting a job! Dating different people! Maybe moving around! Maybe traveling! On to marriage! On to kids!

Then, your kids grow up, you're likely to keep the same job/career, and then ... Hmmm. What next? There's not an obvious "new thing" to work toward except maybe pure financial survival. I'm on the precipice of this stage.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. What does 'it happened the other day' mean to you?

In your teens, it probably means 'yesterday'.
In your 30s, during the last week.
In your 50s, the last month.
In your 70s, the last year.

[RKP5637]

28. Yep!!! n/t

[teach1st]

7. Whenever I think about time, I get second thoughts.

I think it's true: the rounder we go the faster we get.

[ReRe]

29. Or...

..."The rounder we get, the faster we go"?

[teach1st]

40. It wasn't an exact...

It wasn't an exact Dead quote, but the spirit was there.

[ReRe]

49. Hey... you did good. I hadn't ever heard of it before. n/t

[Paladin]

8. No need to mystify it.

When you're seven, a year represents 1/7th of your existence. When you're seventy, that same year's time represents 1/70th of your existence. It's all relative.....

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Exactly.

And the reason older, otherwise healthy, people have a hard time remembering things sometimes is because they have so many stored memories to sort through.

[Rex]

9. Everything is relative locally.

If you are 100 years old, a year is just 1/100th of your overall life. If you are 1 years old, a year is almost half a life time.

[kentuck]

11. Yes, your orbit becomes smaller..

Until there is no orbit at all.

[Bigmack]

12. Life is like a roll of toilet paper...

... as you get closer to the end it goes faster.

[randome]

65. So what's the tube in the middle?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[Bigmack]

72. That's the Tube of Infinity... in which we all revert to star-stuff. nt

[oldandhappy]

13. For me this year, August evaporated!

And there were other times of long delicious soaks in the sun, endless afternoons with a good book, lazy lunches at any time of day with friends. So the balance is different!

[tclambert]

17. Gravity intensifies as we get older, too.

Look at the little kids bouncing around the playground, and look at the old folks struggle to climb out of a comfy chair.

[Voice for Peace]

20. good point..

as if over a lifetime there is a slow leak of whatever
that bouncy gas is, and we deflate as we age.

[alfredo]

22. I've been deflating all day.

Cabbage

[Voice for Peace]

27. I've noticed that elderly do seem to be deflating more quickly, often loudly, and with less shame.

[alfredo]

38. That's why we have dogs. They gladly take the blame.

[Voice for Peace]

55. "deflating without shame, and having dogs to blame"

we are a poet.

[alfredo]

69. Ha!

[alfredo]

23. It's sad that gravity is especially cruel to women.

[Voice for Peace]

30. Subjective... it depends on what we see as beauty.

[alfredo]

34. I was thinking of the standards of beauty in our culture, and how too often

it is youth and physical beauty that is the measure of worth.

[Voice for Peace]

54. so.. just for sanity's sake.. it is not gravity, but the culture, which is cruel to women.

[alfredo]

67. So our culture judges women on what is a natural process.

[RebelOne]

53. Yes, definitely.

As I have noticed the chin sags and so does the bust line and everything on the body goes south.

[Javaman]

61. That's why I don't want to live forever.

If I lived to be 1000, all my skin will have pooled around my feet. lol

[Thor_MN]

31. I maintain that I am getting taller, as the ground gets farther away every year.

And the rate of increase is exceeding my hair's ability to migrate...

[alfredo]

36. My arms got shorter, until I got reading glasses.

[yourmovemonkey]

50. I have always worn glasses, but had the same problem

When people would ask me what was wrong as I slid my glasses further and further down, I'd reply that there was nothing wrong with my eyes... I was just running out of nose.

[alfredo]

51. I have some extra earlobe if you need.

[ileus]

18. Once you have kids it does...

First 32 years of my life seemed like forever, the past 12 like 1 year.

[Voice for Peace]

24. wow.. it seems like just yesterday I made that same calculation.

20 years ago.

I recall telling my daughter how we blink and a whole
lifetime has gone by. She said "is that really how it is?"
"Yes" says I, 20 years ago.

Also, a lifespan of 70 years is made up of a mere 25,550 days.

[alfredo]

21. It sure does. I lay down on the couch and the next thing I know it is 9PM

[WillyT]

25. Yep... Except For When I Inadvertently Land On Faux News...

[Voice for Peace]

26. I find there's a reverse phenomenon, which is that time goes more slowly

when I'm having fun.

Focusing more on the ability to enjoy, and less on
the predictable passing of just-about-everything.

[FailureToCommunicate]

32. 525,600 minutes...each one precious...and yes, they do speed up...as you realize

you can't get a single one back.
However, if you make the most of them, with love in your heart and good will toward all, you may not regret too many of those...moments of your life.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hj7LRuusFqo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Warpy]

35. I honestly don't know if that's the case

or that we're much more selective about the memories we retain. Without retaining a lot of unfiltered junk like we did when we were kids and young adults, it seems there was less time elapsing than there actually was.

I do notice that boredom isn't as huge a problem as it was when I was a kid.

[alterfurz]

37. "Always remember...

...the time to love is short." (This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong / To love that well which thou must leave ere long. — Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 )

Folks, I'm telling you--
Birthing is hard
and dying is mean--
so get yourself a little loving
in between.
-- Langston Hughes

[Liberal_Dog]

39. It Sure Seems That Way

I will be 50 next year and it just seems like the weeks and months go by a lot faster than when I was younger.

[KoKo]

41. Yes..."in perception" it does as one moves through their lives.

This concept may only apply to those who "clock their achievements..goal oriented individuals" but, in general, I think all intelligent, tuned in, individuals feel "THE MARCH OF TIME at OUR BACK DOORS.

When my daughter was young enough that I still could carry her around...but inquisitive enough to understand what I said to her.......I stood at a bus stop with her in my arms when she was maybe 3 1/2 years old and said to her looking at a group of shrubs at the Bus Stop: "You see this beautiful green bush (it was Spring) ...it will bloom with flowers soon....but you will be here with me at this bus stop when it is cold...and there will be no leaves because it will be 'sleeping then' and it will go through cold and then when we are here next year...you will see leaves and then beautiful flowers." I continued... "It is the seasons of our lives. AS YOU GROW ...Time will SPEED UP and these Seasons will become shorter as you Get Older."

When she was a late teen...she said to me one day..."Mom, I remember what you said to me when I was very little at the bus stop." And, "yes, it seems to me as I grow...that life speeds up to me." By then I was even older as her Mom...and I replied..."It will speed up more than you ever imagine." Because.....it HAD, for ME--by that time in her life speeded up remarkably. But, my own Father had told me that when I was just a little kid...around the same age as my toddler daughter--(many years before she was ever born) the SAME THING that I told my daughter when she was still little enough to hold in my arms at the Bus Stop.

Whatever.......

[eridani]

42. Yes, at least subjectively. Not sure about objectively. n/t

[BlueJazz]

43. Also, the time remembered is shorter than the lifetime.

When you're 60, you've only experienced about 40 years.

[raccoon]

60. Elucidate, my dear Watson. nt

[BlueJazz]

63. Oh! how I loathe those little slices of death, slowly and surely stealing my Life away.

.
.
.

[BeanMusical]

44. Time flies like an arrow...

Fruit flies like a banana.

[Ishoutandscream2]

45. Yes.

[MrMickeysMom]

46. As each year goes by...

It becomes comparatively less time to the time I've lived…

Until I leave this 3-D experience and go back to what I was…

[UTUSN]

47. It does for me. Been nice knowing you!1 n/t

[Thinkingabout]

52. Everyday we live our life's window grow larger. We learn more, have more to remember

Our memory chip gets more used space, but is a joy to do so.

[DreamGypsy]

56. Never a breath you can afford to waste; you've got to kick at the darkness...

...'tll it bleeds daylight, when you're a lover in a dangerous time.

Bruce Cockburn - Lovers in a Dangerous Time:

Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time

These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin -- this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time

When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime --
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight --
You've got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
And we're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time

... or the more exuberant cover by Barenaked Ladies:

When that day dawns that I'm not dazzled by the beauty of it all...by the vibrant skin and hair like lace...I'm dead.

[Jamaal510]

57. It seems to speed up whenever I'm using technology,

be it the Internet, TV, video games, or my iPod.

[yuiyoshida]

58. This weekend just flew by...

Yes, its MONDAY again !!!

[LWolf]

59. It sure feels like it, anyway.

Each year is gone in a blink, faster than the one before.

[UglyGreed]

62. The first 26 years or so

of my life felt like it took forever, the next 23 years flew by like an airplane.

[snooper2]

66. I guess it would seem to if you don't get your lazy ass off the couch!

Go outside and do something!

[sendero]

68. It sure seems to.

.... I think part of that is being more busy and having more responsibilities as we age.

[CrispyQ]

70. Life is like a roll of toilet paper - the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.