Why Time Feels Different in the Pandemic

News Peg

The pandemic has distorted the perception of time for nearly 80% of people, according to a recent study conducted by Liverpool John Moores University with 687 participants.

According to the results, 41% of the participants felt time passed more slowly than normal based on the current day, and 41% felt that time passed more quickly. 18% of those participants felt it was the same as usual.

This subjective experience doesn’t require the statistics because it is clear that there are so many of us who feel this distortion. 

The Reasons 

The study found that there were four main reasons that this distortion occurs. The first reason seemed to be the age of the individual.

The older the participant the slower the perception of time during the pandemic - especially true for individuals more than 60 years old. 

Another key reason the researchers found was that stressful situations impacted one’s perception of time. Generally, if an individual felt more stressed the slower his or her passage of time. 

A busier individual found time to pass faster.

Also, an individual who was more interactive socially during the last six months also found time to pass faster than normal time.

What This Could Mean

Despite some findings expressing a correlation and not a conclusion, the findings or reasons can give us a deep analysis on human behavior and mind.

Along with older age clearly making an individual feel time slow down due to lifestyle and psychological and physical changes, a busier schedule also forces an individual to see time move relatively faster as well - generally even beyond the presence of a pandemic locking one up at home.

According to Psychology Today’s Dr. Art Markman, “When you are cognitively busy, you are focused on each task you are performing, and so you don't have the opportunity to notice the passage of time.” 

But it is specifically in the presence of the modern pandemic that we see the other two reasons truly providing insight.

In the middle of a pandemic full of certainty, stress and mental health concerns are unavoidable. 

The report found higher risk of depression and episodes of anxiety for individuals during the pandemic. The root of this issue could be - expectations.

Dr. Fernando Castrillon, a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, in an exclusive interview for The Philosophy of Now podcast, points out, individuals tend to “build up the future based on the past.” We either resort to a future of “optimistic expectation or of dire pessimism.” Either way, when the expectation is not met or in the later it is not - we resort to a type of mental breakdown.

Thus, to be able to stay sane, serene, and strong during the drastic changes and uncertainty surrounding us in the pandemic, Castrillon suggests that accepting the reality and taking our lives one step at a time.

As a matter of fact, the ancient, spiritual text from India, the Bhagavad Gita, says - “Free from sin and a sense of ownership, with mind and intellect fully controlled, a yogi lives serenely.”

The pandemic may be the optimal time to adopt the yogi mind-control to remain sane and calm. The shifts in subjective perception of time wouldn’t affect us as a result. 

Being humn, we are social animals seeking normalcy in our interactions with each other. Thus when normalcy is associated with our human-ness as social beings and those interactions are continued consistently during the pandemic, it is understandable that time seems to be moving normally or even faster.

Time perception is absolutely an internal process and we realize that even more so during this pandemic. 

As a matter of time feeling too fast or too slow can be associated with mental illnesses. “Manic and depressed BP patients perceive the speed of time as either too fast or too slow,” according to the  Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

We realize that we want each other. We understand that our minds can travel differently than reality, and at a completely different pace from others. 

And we must conclude that the only way to not panic from different time perceptions is if we mentally accept the circumstances and learn to fight on in our lives.