Why Does Time Speed Up As You Get Older?

Your summers used to last forever. Now a whole year disappears and you can barely say what happened in it. Time isn't actually moving faster — something else is going on. Your brain doesn't record your life like a camera. It records what's new, and quietly throws away what repeats. And when you look back and ask how long a year was, it doesn't check a clock — it counts the memories. Fewer memories, shorter year. This video covers: — why "a year is a smaller fraction of your life" isn't the real answer — how your brain decides how long the past was — the drop-tower experiment that tested whether time really slows down in fear — the reminiscence bump, and why your clearest memories cluster between 15 and 25 — the one thing that still makes time feel long, at any age Sources and further reading: Avni-Babad, D. & Ritov, I. — Routine and the Perception of Time (2003) Stetson, C., Fiesta, M. & Eagleman, D. — Does Time Really Slow Down During a Frightening Event? (2007) Rubin, D., Wetzler, S. & Nebes, R. — Autobiographical Memory Across the Lifespan (1986) Hammond, C. — Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception (2012) New investigation every week. 0:00 One summer when you were eight 0:47 Your brain doesn't record your life 1:10 How your brain measures the past 1:49 Why childhood felt so long 2:15 The drop tower experiment 2:54 What happens when you grow up 3:15 The reminiscence bump 3:54 How to make time slow down 4:41 Back to that summer