Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?

Cyprus-based psychologist explains how memory, routine and new experiences shape our sense of time – and what we can do to make the years feel longer.For many of us in Cyprus, the last day of school once marked the beginning of what felt like an endless stretch of time: days at the beach, afternoons with friends, summer jobs, first loves and weeks still left before September arrived. Experience that same summer as an adult and it can feel very different. There are children to entertain, holidays to organise, and jobs that do not stop simply because schools have closed. Before long, September is here again. The summer that once seemed to last a lifetime can now pass in a heartbeat. But why exactly does our perception of time change so much? Is it simply a consequence of getting older, or does the way we spend our days have more to do with it? Why childhood seemed to last forever According to Marios Avraamides, professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Cyprus, the answer has more to do with memory than perception. “How we experience time in the moment and how we later remember past temporal intervals are two different, though related, things,” he explains. The number of distinct and memorable events we experience is something Avraamides refers to as density and is one explanation for why childhood seems to have lasted longer. Childhood is filled with new and distinct experiences, from starting a new school and making friends to family holidays and many other firsts. Adulthood, by comparison, can become increasingly repetitive. “Fewer distinct events means less material for memory to ‘unpack’ afterward,” Avraamides explains. “As a result, the year is retrospectively compressed, remembered as having gone by quickly.” This feeling doesn’t necessarily begin in middle age. At just 21, Andreas Papacostas, who is studying sports and exercise science at UCLan Cyprus and working as a fitness and swimming coach, has already noticed time moving faster. He says he has felt this way since his final year of high school and has noticed the feeling becoming stronger since he began juggling university and two jobs, Looking back, he describes his third year at university as “the fastest year ever!”. His childhood memories, however, are not quite the same. He recalls waiting three months for a family holiday to England, a period that, when he was younger, felt almost impossibly long. “That three months that I was waiting for that trip, it was like a decade!” he recalls. Childhood is filled with new and distinct experiences How routine makes time disappear For Kev Nahabedian, a 42-year-old Armenian Cypriot writer and producer who grew up in Cyprus and now lives in London, the feeling became noticeable in his 30s but has become more pronounced in recent years. “Now I can genuinely get to September and think, how on earth are we here already?” he says. Growing up in Cyprus, he remembers how summers seemed to go on indefinitely. Days were spent swimming and seeing friends and family, going out in the evenings and there always seemed to be endless time still ahead. “You could go swimming, see family or friends, come home, go out again in the evening, and somehow it still only seemed to be Tuesday.” For him, periods of adulthood can become more difficult to tell apart in his memory, whereas individual childhood summers stand out distinctly in his mind. “Routine is definitely the great accelerator for me,” he says. “When life becomes repetitive, particularly when you are working and dealing with the same responsibilities every week, the individual days may not necessarily feel fast while you are living them, but looking back they seem to have vanished.” There is another aspect of growing older that Kev also finds alarming: realising that events which feel recent to him happened five, ten, or even 15 years ago. He also notices time passing as his friends’ children grow up and the adults he remembers from childhood gradually become elderly. Why boredom makes time drag There seems to be a contradiction in the way we experience time: when we are experiencing something fun, time seems to fly by. By contrast, when we are bored, we often focus on time, which can make the experience drag on forever. Avraamides explains that the difference lies in whether we are experiencing time or looking back on it. “When we’re bored, by contrast, we often think about time directly,” he says. “Focusing our attention on time while we experience an event makes that even feel like it’s lasting longer.” But when we look back, there are times when the exact opposite can be true. Months filled with the same activities leave fewer distinct memories, making the period seem shorter in hindsight. For 85-year-old Spyros Makridakis, a university professor specialising in forecasting, sailing has given him another perspective on how time passes. As an experienced sailor, Makridakis has been in several competitions, experiencing everything from near still conditions to powerful winds that require skill to navigate the boat. Yet, when he reflects on those days, it was during the slower races that he felt like time lasted longer. “Looking back, the races sailed in light winds seem to have lasted disproportionately longer than those raced in strong, even dangerous conditions.” Even though Makridakis has long noticed times passing faster as he grows older, certain memorable periods remain vivid in his mind. So, can we actually do anything to slow down our perception of time? According to Avraamides, the feeling that years are flying by is not necessarily unavoidable as we age. Routine plays an important role, and changing it can help. “Deliberately introducing novelty, breaking routines, and even just paying close attention to ordinary moments can restore some of that density to our memories.”