Scientist explains why time 'speeds up' as we get older

The term 'time flies' is one that has been thrown around for many a year, and one that seems to become more of a reality with age.

I think the older people amongst us will be the first to admit that one second they were a child without a care in the world, and the next they are a fully-grown adult with a bunch of responsibilities and a job to contend with.

Scientists have never found a reason as to why time seems to fly by, though a recent theory may just provide some validity to this age-old saying.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told the Daily Mail: "One is that when we are older, we tend to have lives that are more structured around routines, and fewer of the big landmark events that we use to demarcate different epochs of the 'time of our lives'."

Pexels

The professor went on to say that we have fewer experiences to reflect on as a child, which is of course true as they have not be on this planet as long.

To put it into perspective, a five-year-old has 20 percent of their life packed into just a year, and there's certainly a lot that happens in those early years, isn't there?

On the other hand, the same amount of time is only two percent of a 50-year-old's lifetime, subsequently having few new experiences in that time.

As you move into a structure throughout your adult life, less, newer experiences often occur. Lusting told the Daily Mail that our brain often combines similar weeks and days together, often bleeding into one.

This is the reason most people can often recall something they have done once rather than the hundred of times they may have potentially done it.

Science shows that humans often gauge time by memorable events, something that is potentially new as we move throughout adult life.

Pexels

But for a lot of people, these are few and far between the older we get, as life can often become routine.

So, if this theory is to believed, then you'll want to be quitting your day job and begin traveling to slow time down.

But, of course, that is not an option for a lot of the population, so we may just have to accept the (depressing) fact time will continue to speed up the older we get.