Why Time Seems to Go by Faster as You Get Older

Neuroscientist David Eagleman offers a brilliant but slightly head scratching explanation for why time seems to go by much faster as you get older. It all has to do with how quickly the brain processes information, how soon routines become familiar, how familiar information leads to complacency and how the brain reacts to new information with energy and vigor. Eagleman suggests that changing things up a bit and introducing novelty helps to slow time down while exercising the brain.

…when you’re a child, everything’s new to you. You’re figuring out the rules of the world, you’re writing down a lot of memory, and so when you look back at the end of a year, you have a lot of memory of what you’ve learnt. But when you’re much older and you look back at the end of the year, you’re probably doing approximately the same stuff you’ve been doing for the X number of previous years. And so it seems like the year just went by in a flash. …Really the way to feel as though you’ve lived longer is to seek novelty.

via Open Culture