The scientific reason years get faster as we get older – and how to slow them down

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. We perceive fewer “frames-per-second” as we get older, and therefore time feels like it’s passing quicker. “It’s not that their experiences were much deeper or more meaningful, it’s just that they were being processed in rapid fire.” Plus, the less time we’ve experienced, the greater a proportion of our lives a set period of time actually is. Another reason that time feels longer when we’re younger is that the brain is programmed to hang on to new experiences, says Bejan – and when we’re young, we’re having new experiences all the time. With few fresh memories made, weeks blend into months, blend into years Routine is the enemy of expanding your time; shifting things up, whether it’s simply walking a new way to the shop, dabbling in a new hobby or branching out and listening to a different kind of music, could be the key to elongating each year rather than looking back on an increasingly ill-defined blur.