Why Does Childhood Feel Longer in Our Memories Than Adulthood?
An interesting, light-hearted answer to something you may have thought about!
BUT then adulthood arrives… And the older we get, the faster time seems to move.
Suddenly, you blink and another year is nearly over. But wait, it just began...
---> Here’s the thing: Time hasn’t actually sped up (obviously), but the way our brains experience and remember things changes as we get older.
*** Psychology offers some fascinating reasons why:
~~~~ Our Brains Don’t Store Time … They Store What Happened. ~~~~~
When we look back on our lives, our brains don’t replay a perfect timeline; We reconstruct time using memories, changes, people, places, and events.
Research on "retrospective time perception" suggests that periods with more noticeable change often feel longer in hindsight because there are more “memory landmarks.”
Childhood is full of them... There’s new teachers, new friends, first sleepovers, first concerts, first jobs, first time driving.
Adult life can be much more repetitive, and when one week looks a lot like the next, there are simply fewer distinct memories separating the days.
~~~~We Get A LOT More “Firsts” When We Are Young ~~~~
New experiences tend to stand out in memory, and childhood is packed with firsts.
Your first trip somewhere new or first big school event creates a stronger memory than your 40th trip to the grocery store.
That’s also why a weeklong vacation can feel surprisingly long when you look back on it. There are new places, meals, conversations, and experiences to remember.
Meanwhile, three routine weeks at home can practically merge into one giant Tuesday.
~~~~ There’s Something Called the “Reminiscence Bump” ~~~~
According to psychologists, adults tend to recall an unusually large number of important memories from adolescence and early adulthood (*often roughly between ages 10 and 30).
This is known as the "reminiscence bump"…. And it makes sense: those years often contain major milestones like graduations, friendships, relationships, independence, careers, and figuring out who we are.
Our brains may hold onto this period especially well because so much of our identity is being formed during it.
~~~~ Routine Is Great for Life … But Not Always for Memory ~~~~
Routine makes life easier, but it can also make time blur together.
When Monday looks like Tuesday, and Tuesday looks like Wednesday, our brains don’t necessarily store each day as a completely separate event.
Research suggests that periods with more variety and change can feel longer afterward… versus those periods filled with repetition.
~~~~ There's a Weird Time Paradox, Too ~~~~
Time can feel very different while we’re experiencing it than it does when we remember it later.
Ten boring minutes in a waiting room can feel endless in the moment, but they leave almost no lasting memory.
A great vacation may seem to fly by while you’re there, yet feel huge in hindsight because so much happened.
So “time flies when you’re having fun” and “new experiences make life feel longer” can BOTH be true.
One describes the experience; The other describes the memory.
~~~~ Does "One Year" Becomes a Smaller Percentage of Your Life? ~~~~
You’ may have heard the idea that a single year feels longer to a 5-year-old because it represents 20% of their life... While a single year to a 50-year-old is only 2%.
**This is an interesting theory, but researchers don’t think it explains everything.
Memory, attention, novelty, routine, emotion, and how well we form new memories all seem to influence how quickly time feels like it passes; So the answer is a little more complicated than simple math.
Q: Can We Make Adulthood Feel Longer?
A: Probably not in the same way those endless childhood summers did, but we can give our brains more memorable landmarks.
— Try a new restaurant.
— Visit somewhere you’ve never been.
— Take a class.
— Start a project.
— Learn something new.
— Make plans with someone you haven’t seen in a while.
These things don’t have to be dramatic…. Sometimes, simply doing something different is enough to give an ordinary week its own little chapter.
And we say that’s a pretty good reason to try something new like a painting class… sip a new wine… Say “Yes!” to a different kind of night out.
Adulthood may not actually be moving faster…. We may just need to give ourselves more reasons to remember it.