Does life feel like it’s speeding up? How to slow down time in 2025
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Time flies when you’re… in a boring routine, according to research, which shows that new experiences, from foreign travel to a walk in nature, can alter our perception of time. It’s the time of the year for endless cliches. From “tis the season” and “the gift that keeps on giving” to “new year, new you”, there’s nowhere to hide from tired old phrases. One of my favourites is “Christmas comes around quicker each year” – which ignores the fact that one year equals one trip around the sun.
![[Beatriz Flamini, who spent 500 days living in isolation in a cave in southern Spain. She is pictured by torchlight in her cave.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/00ce13b060e42db31831eec10dd9ad7acd2cce08/2_0_1800_1080/master/1800.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
There’s often a kernel of truth in a cliche, though. A recent study by Ruth Ogden from Liverpool John Moores University and colleagues showed that the vast majority of people in both the UK and Iraq really did experience Christmas (or Ramadan) approaching more rapidly every year. This may be down partly to festive decorations appearing ever earlier in the season. But it’s also a result of how we perceive time psychologically.
![[A hiker on a clifftop path near Albany, Western Australia. ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7c8ea31968da7addbdb675271609d774866f9734/3_86_6470_4391/master/6470.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The widespread feeling that time is speeding up can be particularly stressful as the new year approaches. It can leave us feeling out of control, fixating on all the things we have failed to achieve. But it turns out that it is possible to slow down our perception of time.
Human time perception is deeply odd. Time can speed up or slow down depending on what we’re doing. And it can shrink or expand when we look back at it. Marc Wittmann from the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Germany calls this subjective experience “felt time”, as opposed to the more objective “clock time”.
