How adrenaline can change our perception of time
In: 204
It’s mostly how memory works. Your brain does not record everything that happens, but only the important things. That’s why sometimes you are driving your daily commute for half an hour and don’t remember driving the past 15 minutes. You were aware of everything but your brain didn’t recorded it.
An example of this is that you usually don’t hear the ringtones of your coworkers after a while. Your brain gets used to them and “learn” it’s not important to you, so you hear them but not record them. And that’s why it’s useful to change the default ringtone from your phone if you have a popular brand, otherwise your brain will enter “attention mode” every time you hear “The Nokia Tune” (only 90’s kids will get this).
When adrenaline kicks in, it’s mostly because something important is happening. Your brain thinks you are in danger, so it ramps up the senses and recording circuitry for you to detect and react to things happening around you.
The same thing happens even without adrenaline: if you drive somewhere new for the first time, the trip feels longer than after driving it a couple times. The first time your brain does not know the location so it pays attention to every turn, every landmark, every crossing, because it’s important. After a while it “memorized” the route and stops recording most the trip and it feels quicker.
Latest Answers