Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older

Right now, you could walk from your front door to your bed with your eyes closed. You know your commute so well you sometimes arrive without remembering the drive. Nothing goes wrong. Everything runs smoothly. And that's exactly why the last five years feel like eighteen months. This video is about why that happens and why the answer everyone repeats (the older you get, the smaller each year feels as a fraction of your life) is only half right. It's about a neuroscientist who dropped twenty people off a fifteen-story tower to test if fear really slows down time. And it's about what your brain is actually doing every time it decides a year was "short." What you'll learn in this video: Why an hour never speeds up, even though years do What a free-fall experiment in Dallas proved about memory, not time Why ages 15 to 25 hold more memory than any other decade of your life The one thing that actually makes time feel slower — and it isn't rest Timestamps / Chapters: 00:00 - The comfort you don't notice 00:46 - Is this even real? 01:25 - The 150-year-old answer 02:36 - The hole nobody talks about 03:40 - A tower in Dallas, Texas 05:46 - Your brain doesn't have a clock 06:17 - The years you actually remember 07:43 - How you got good at your own life 09:42 - What you can actually do about it 10:22 - Why summers never end when you're a kid Sources: Janet, P. (1877). Une illusion d'optique interne. Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger, 3, 497–502. Wearden, J. H. (2022). Paul Janet and Changes in the Apparent Speed of Passage of Time with Aging. Timing & Time Perception, 10(3). Stetson, C., Fiesta, M. P., & Eagleman, D. M. (2007). Does Time Really Slow Down during a Frightening Event? PLoS ONE, 2(12), e1295. Wittmann, M., & Lehnhoff, S. (2005). Age Effects in Perception of Time. Psychological Reports, 97, 921–935. Rubin, D. C., Wetzler, S. E., & Nebes, R. D. (1986). Autobiographical Memory Across the Adult Lifespan. Hammond, C. (2012). Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception. If this rearranged something for you, hit Subscribe, share this with someone who keeps saying "where did this year go?", and leave a comment below. Stay curious. #timeperception #psychology #whytimefliesby #neuroscience #memory #eagleman