Is Time Perception Acceleration a Real Phenomenon?

[bdd86]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I've been wanting to ask others about time perception but haven't gotten to it until now. Ever since I was little (and my sister used to have it as well, but neither of my parents), every once in a while time seems to speed up in my mind when I know time isn't actually speeding up. For example, I'll be talking to my dad and everything we both say seems like it's going ten times faster than what it is, but I know that it isn't (kind of...I guess...). Or it will happen when I'm trying to take a test (I remember I was taking a geometry test my freshman year of HS) and I won't be able to concentrate because everything seems to be speeding up. Sometimes it will last just a few minutes, other times up to ten minutes. What I remember, though, as a child, it started out in dreams. I remember dreaming of an empty spool of thread turning faster and faster until I'd wake up and everything would still be moving very quickly. I don't have those dreams anymore, but it does still happen at the most random times. I don't think I'm crazy and I'm not taking drugs nor do I have ADD or ADHD, lol, but I would like to know if there's something going on up there.

Thanks for listening to my babbling and any insight is really appreciated!
-Britta

 

[vvt]

Time is some think that we can not understand but it maybe a kind of illusion or in some point your mind speed up because time is something relative so if time slow to me it can look fast for you
Or you have ability to shift time I don’t really know

 

[Mk]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I've been wanting to ask others about time perception but haven't gotten to it until now. Ever since I was little (and my sister used to have it as well, but neither of my parents), every once in a while time seems to speed up in my mind when I know time isn't actually speeding up.

Know what you mean, we had a very short thread posted a bit ago that I responded to, sharing my own experience I believe. I'll try and find it for you.

 

[Mk]

Here's one, I believe the other is somewhere near the end of "Anomalous and Extraordinary Mental Experiences" thread, or something like that.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=124703

 

[jiohdi]

Time is an invented means for cataloguing events. The mind's ability to process and store incoming data will determine how we perceive time. Much of our conscious awareness seems to lag measured reality by about 0.3 seconds. If our brain has some quirk that causes this delay to increase, it could seem like everything is sped up as our normal view of things is unable to deal with the data at its typical pace. People often remember traumatic events as if they happened in slow motion because powerful emotions tend to cause vivid memories. The greater degree of detail stored gives the impression of an expanded view of things after the fact. the illusion of slowed down time is powerful, but no one has reported, to my knowledge, any increased ability to deal with the event at the time...indicating that time was not any more expanded at the actual time of the event than normal. Likewise when we are bored and wish to be elsewhere we tend to pay far more attention and store memories with strong negative emotions making time drag. while we are having fun, the emotions are generally pleasant and memory transfer to long term storage is weak by comparison to painful events and so on later reflection, time flew...there is not much content in the recall.

 

[tonyjeffs]

I'm learning some fast pieces on guitar.
I've noticed that sometimes as I master the speed of a piece, time appears to slow down, so that I have time to get all the notes in, (or more likely my brain speeds up). I wish I could make it happen at will. I imagine it's the same phenomenon as when everything moves in slow motion during a car accident.

On the other hand I could be imagining it.

Tony

 

[Ceth]

People often remember traumatic events as if they happened in slow motion because powerful emotions tend to cause vivid memories. The greater degree of detail stored gives the impression of an expanded view of things after the fact. the illusion of slowed down time is powerful, but no one has reported, to my knowledge, any increased ability to deal with the event at the time...indicating that time was not any more expanded at the actual time of the event than normal.

I believe this is actually incorrect. There's a study by David Eagleman that demonstrates this.

From http://neuro.bcm.edu/eagleman/Media/DiscoverMagazine_MindInOverdrive_April2006.pdf

"Eagleman designed a test. He built a
small LED screen that flashed a series
of numbers too quickly to comprehend.
He attached the screen to his subjects'
wrists, clipped a bungee cord to their
legs, and had them jump backward, one
by one, off a 150-foot tower-a fairly terrifying
experience for the uninitiated. To
his surprise, his jumpers (all two of them;
the experiment is ongoing and the results
preliminary) were able to read the flashing
numbers on the way down-evidence
that a brain under duress can warp time."


Now if we could only make this happen at will, that would be something.

 

[jiohdi]

I believe this is actually incorrect. There's a study by David Eagleman that demonstrates this.

From http://neuro.bcm.edu/eagleman/Media/DiscoverMagazine_MindInOverdrive_April2006.pdf

"Eagleman designed a test. He built a
small LED screen that flashed a series
of numbers too quickly to comprehend.
He attached the screen to his subjects'
wrists, clipped a bungee cord to their
legs, and had them jump backward, one
by one, off a 150-foot tower-a fairly terrifying
experience for the uninitiated. To
his surprise, his jumpers (all two of them;
the experiment is ongoing and the results
preliminary) were able to read the flashing
numbers on the way down-evidence
that a brain under duress can warp time."


Now if we could only make this happen at will, that would be something.

typical awareness time is about 0.3 seconds after the fact according to many sources... however like a camera, under duress we may snap more frames for storage then normal, in playback this would seem like the events happened in slow motion...and would allow for the ability to see things normally too fast to perceive...however it would still not allow us to react to them in real time and this seems to me to be the key issue... what we experience as slowed or accelerated time is only in the playback... which is still 0.3 seconds removed from the actual event.

 

[jiohdi]

there is an interesting caveate[?] to this... after playing a lot of water volley ball, my reflexive reaction time to events is sped up but this seems to be happening outside my conscious awareness, and again I am experiencing what happened after its over...but for this to be so, some part of my being must be aware in some way to react as quickly as it does...some part of me that is normally outside my awareness must have its own awareness.

 

[Wired]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I've been wanting to ask others about time perception but haven't gotten to it until now. Ever since I was little (and my sister used to have it as well, but neither of my parents), every once in a while time seems to speed up in my mind when I know time isn't actually speeding up. For example, I'll be talking to my dad and everything we both say seems like it's going ten times faster than what it is, but I know that it isn't (kind of...I guess...). Or it will happen when I'm trying to take a test (I remember I was taking a geometry test my freshman year of HS) and I won't be able to concentrate because everything seems to be speeding up. Sometimes it will last just a few minutes, other times up to ten minutes. What I remember, though, as a child, it started out in dreams. I remember dreaming of an empty spool of thread turning faster and faster until I'd wake up and everything would still be moving very quickly. I don't have those dreams anymore, but it does still happen at the most random times. I don't think I'm crazy and I'm not taking drugs nor do I have ADD or ADHD, lol, but I would like to know if there's something going on up there.

Thanks for listening to my babbling and any insight is really appreciated!
-Britta

Its funny, I am experiencing exactly the same thing from time to time.

I've been searching the web about this but nothing has come up yet (besides you).

It started out in dreams with me as well. I remember seeing some black lines moving in a white, overwhelming, ever-growing void I couldn't comprehend.

Since then, there are times when I feel that time "speeds up". Its like everything is happening at a normal speed but my brain thinks its happening faster. Its overwhelming, senses get mixed up and I feel surrounded by data. At first it was pretty annoying. I used to just do nothing until it passed away. Now I can handle it when it happens, it does get on my nerves though since I cannot explain it and it isn't useful at all (lol). I try to calm myself down by listening to a music track or watching a video to "follow" the correct speed of things, even talking to someone over the phone, but it usually doesn't work. After 5-10 minutes everything goes back to normal.

It doesn't even happen at set intervals. Sometimes its months before it happens, but it could also happen 3-4 times in one month, usually late at night.

When I was a kid it would even happen while talking with my parents.

Am I crazy or what?

 

[seh4005]

i get the same

Its funny, I am experiencing exactly the same thing from time to time.

I've been searching the web about this but nothing has come up yet (besides you).

It started out in dreams with me as well. I remember seeing some black lines moving in a white, overwhelming, ever-growing void I couldn't comprehend.

Since then, there are times when I feel that time "speeds up". Its like everything is happening at a normal speed but my brain thinks its happening faster. Its overwhelming, senses get mixed up and I feel surrounded by data. At first it was pretty annoying. I used to just do nothing until it passed away. Now I can handle it when it happens, it does get on my nerves though since I cannot explain it and it isn't useful at all (lol). I try to calm myself down by listening to a music track or watching a video to "follow" the correct speed of things, even talking to someone over the phone, but it usually doesn't work. After 5-10 minutes everything goes back to normal.

It doesn't even happen at set intervals. Sometimes its months before it happens, but it could also happen 3-4 times in one month, usually late at night.

When I was a kid it would even happen while talking with my parents.

Am I crazy or what?

this also happens to me. it just happened five minutes ago, that is what led me to get online and try to find out what it is. the earliest association i have with it is playing video games as a kid. specifically aladdin for the super nintendo. i don't know why.

i remember telling my mom about it as a kid and she tried to take me to get my hearing checked. i knew she hadnt experienced it before because a hearing test would not have fixed anything. it wasnt just sound moving faster it was everything. it wasn't my ears that were broken. i think i told her "everything sounds faster sometimes." which isn't entirely true. i should have said "everything seems faster sometimes."

and just like the guy above me said, sometimes i go months without it happening and then sometimes in one month it will happen 3 to 4 times.

i don't know. - stefan

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, this discussion seems to be inviting too much speculation. This is not the place for getting a diagnosis. If you are actually experiencing something atypical in your perception of time or events, please seek a medical opinion (i.e., neurologist or psychiatrist, or both in collaboration).

I'm going to close this thread now.