An American biologist has been estimating the passing of a minute every day for 45 years, with his results showing that time does indeed seem to speed up as you get older.
If you’re young, you’ve probably heard the old adage “time flies” from an older acquaintance. If you’re older, you’ve probably lamented the passage of time to someone young. Either way, it seems that time only seems to speed up as you get older.
This may actually be true. American biologist Robert B. Sothern has spent the last 45 years testing whether this is the case. Five times a day, every day, he records his blood pressure, temperature, heart rate and the estimation of the passing of a minute.
As he’s gotten older, his time estimation has been increasingly less accurate and time seems to be gradually speeding up. Still, very little is known about how the brain perceives time—scientists haven’t detected a specific spot in the brain that is responsible for time perception.