Why is it, the older we get, the faster time goes by?

The feeling that time moves faster as we age is a well-studied psychological and neurological phenomenon. It happens because our brains process familiar routines with less active data storage, measure time proportionally against the length of our lives, and physically process visual information more slowly over time. single year represents a much smaller fraction of your total life the older you get.Age 5 vs Age 50: For a 5-year-old, one year is 20% of their entire existence. For a 50-year-old, one year is only 2%.Mental scale: Because each year takes up a smaller percentage of our lived experience, our brains perceive it as a shorter span.

Kids experience everything for the first time - riding a bike, tasting a new food, or starting a new grade. This forces the brain to pay close attention and record dense memories.

 

 As adults, we live in routines. Because our commutes, work tasks, and daily chores are or were familiar, the brain stops recording every detail. When you look back at a year filled with routine, your memory has fewer distinct markers to hold onto, making the time feel compressed.