Does Time Really Go By Faster as We Get Older?

It sure feels that way!

November 27, 2018

© Ratz Attila |

Doesn't feel like time is flying on by? Seriously, I feel like I blinked my eye and missed out on most of 2018 because it just came and went so fast! 

But as a child, it always felt like the school year lasted forever. Or it took two years for Christmas to arrive. Why is it that time seems to go by slowly when we are younger and so quickly when we get older? 

Thankfully someone did a study on this phenomenon. Psychologists from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich found that time didn't seem to move as quickly when it came to short durations like days, months, and years for both younger and older people. The big change happened with longer spans of time like decades. 

The psychologists, Marc Wittmann and Sandra Lenhoff, and found that older people felt that time was moving much more swiftly. "When asked to reflect on their lives, the participants older than 40 felt that time elapsed slowly in their childhood but then accelerated steadily through their teenage years into early adulthood."

It all relates to something called the Holiday Paradox. Ever notice that it seems to take forever to get to your destination when you're heading off to a vacation to a tropical island? The flight seems to be twice as long on the way there but seems super short on the way home. 

The good news is that you can make time feel like it's passing much slower. Step out of your normal routine and try new things. Explore new locations and meet new people. These small changes will make time seem like it's moving slower instead of flying on by!