Is there a scientific formula for slowing down time?

Last year's holiday season feels like it was just yesterday. It has been almost 24 years since the year 2000, which still sounds futuristic. Even summers are no longer as long and relaxing as they were in our youth.

No matter how much we want to escape time, we cannot. However, there is a growing number of studies suggesting that time is somehow embedded in the structure of our bodies. Of course, there is such a thing as the circadian rhythm. This internal biological clock can maintain a 24-hour cycle even if we stay in a dark, empty room for months. Furthermore, every cell in our body has its own clock; so much so that some scientists have even assembled a biological clock inside a test tube to study how it works.

According to details featured in Popular Science Turkey, even if you do not embark on an intellectual journey to determine the nature of time, your perception of time plays a major role in how you experience the past, present, and future. Understanding how you perceive time can help you make the most of it.

PRIORITIZE THE PRESENT

When it comes to taking control of time, this might be the most important tip: The key to preventing time from slipping through your fingers may be to pay attention to the moment you are living in right now.

Fuschia Sirois, a professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield who specializes in the art of procrastination, explains: “Whether it is listening to someone share their experiences or simply walking from point A to point B, if your mind is wandering to the past or the future (such as thinking about what it will be like to arrive at point B or what that person said to you last), you are not fully engaged in the richness of the experiences happening in that moment.”

Being fully present, both mentally and emotionally, can range from observing every detail in your friend's words to noticing the environmental details around you. While one study showed that meditation experts perceive time better, other studies have determined that those who meditate feel that time passes more slowly compared to those who do not.

“By being more sensitive to our experiences, we can realize how they can be meaningful to us,” says Sirois. “Sensitivity can promote positive feelings. These positive feelings, in turn, support broad thought structures that can integrate our perceptions of the past, present, and future, making the present moment feel more fulfilling and grounded.”

TRY TO FIND NEW EXPERIENCES

Neuroscientist David Eagleman, who works at Stanford University, says, “In my mind, there is only one way to slow down time: seeking novelty.” “The reason this works is that new experiences cause the brain to record more memories, and when you look back at these memories later, events seem to have lasted longer.”

In fact, this is why the journey to a place you are visiting for the first time often feels much longer than the return trip. Therefore, to stretch time even further, you should push yourself to learn new things as much as possible, or at least trick yourself into thinking something is new; for example, by rearranging your office to make it feel like a new experience. Researchers in the Netherlands have discovered that this novelty leads to a better perception of the experiences we mentioned, and consequently, of time. The same can be true for the opposite. This is why time felt like it passed faster during the COVID-19 period, because we were not having new experiences, and everything seems to have become one big memory bubble.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF AND KEEP YOUR BRAIN BUSY

For Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Rensselaer AI and Reasoning Lab and a professor of logic and philosophy, the longest days are usually spent working on the longest and most difficult problems in mathematical computer science.

“For example, there are problems known to require exponentially more time compared to their inputs; these are called EXPTIME problems.” Bringsjord is particularly fond of American football and says that when you closely examine and make predictions about NFL games and statistics, you are playing an EXPTIME game. “My longest days are usually Mondays because I examine what happened in the NFL the previous day, then I watch Monday Night Football and analyze it even further; and I also make some detailed predictions.”

You do not need to dive as deep into numbers and complex problems as he does, but if you try playing chess, checkers, or Go (all of which are EXPTIME games), you might feel that time is flowing a bit more slowly.

STOP MULTITASKING AND FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME

What is known as 'multitasking' is a myth: You are not juggling multiple tasks at once, you are just switching between tasks rapidly. If you switch between things you are doing quickly, you are not actually focusing on any of them in a meaningful way, which is not a good thing for your attention and productivity, nor for your sense of time.

“We need to intentionally stop multitasking,” says cognitive neuroscientist Caroline Leaf. “By doing this, you scramble the energy waves in the brain and create a kind of tsunami energy effect in the brain, mind, and body that distorts your perception of time.” That is why researchers at the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin showed in a 2015 study that when participants did other tasks while watching commercials, they felt that time passed faster compared to when they focused only on the commercials. This is, of course, a good way to kill time while waiting for your favorite movie to come back on, but it is harmful if you are trying to slow down your pace.

SAY NO, OR AT LEAST DON'T ALWAYS SAY YES

If you can protect your time and have an intention regarding how you spend it, you will feel like you have more control and will perceive time more slowly. Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, a professor of commerce at Rutgers University who conducts research on consumers' perception of time, says, “Do not say yes to everything and try to adopt a rule of only a certain number of appointments or social events each week.”

In fact, the stress of having too much on your plate distorts your perception of time, according to research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, especially when it comes to work and burnout. However, this distortion is not constant; stress can make time seem to speed up or slow down depending on the situation. So please eliminate this variable entirely and say no to a few more things.

HOLD YOUR BREATH, REST, AND LET YOUR MIND WANDER FREELY

“When we live in reaction mode, time feels like something that is slipping away or something we are chasing,” says Catherine Cook Cottone, who conducts research on mindfulness at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “It is a fleeting quality that we are not a part of constructing, like a cosmic conveyor belt taking us somewhere forward. Time expands when it slows down, not when it is compressed or ignored… That is when we feel 'squeezed'.”

This can also mean doing a bit of daydreaming or reflection exercises; for example, letting your mind wander aimlessly for five to 10 minutes to activate the default mode network, which is the state your brain enters when it is not being stimulated. This is basically how your brain resets, and we can gain more perspectives on how we see time, as well as how we feel. The moments we think, daydream, or feel bored can also be those moments.

One of the most extraordinary examples of this is the “one month of boredom” challenge suggested by Chris Bailey, author of the book Hyperfocus. To rest his overstimulated brain, Bailey did something extremely boring for one hour every day. These boring tasks ranged from waiting on hold with an airline to reading terms and conditions contracts. You do not need to go that far; just by resting and being bored, your brain will return to that default mode and your power to slow down time will return.

TRAVEL VERY FAST

When I say very fast, I am talking about space-travel-type speed. You probably won't have the chance to travel at these speeds, but it is worth knowing.

“This way, your perception of the passage of time will be affected,” says Richard Arthur, a professor of philosophy at McMaster University. “But when you meet people who have not traveled at a significant fraction of the speed of light, you will see that these people are actually older: More years have passed for them, and the trees have more rings now.”

In fact, studies show that time flows differently in space. Astronauts age more slowly during space travel compared to the time they spend on Earth. NASA even conducted a study on twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly to get an idea of how radiation, microgravity, and confinement during a space flight affect the passage of time for the human body. Scott stayed in space for 340 days, while Mark was at the ground control base. As a result (you guessed it right), the one who stayed in space had aged very slightly more slowly.

MAKE GOOD MEMORIES

Consciously capturing details is crucial for being able to enjoy your experiences and making time pass more slowly. However, part of doing this depends on how you create memories of those moments, especially after the event has occurred. Mentally developing the right type of snapshot can extend a 10-minute experience to 10 years, or even for the rest of your life.

Actually, it might take practice to do this, but you might consider not taking photos. According to studies conducted by researchers at the University of California and elsewhere, taking photos to remember a funny moment or a picturesque view can dull our memories of that time. If this is a big demand for you, you can still try to create mental images when you can. After all, according to researchers at Northwestern University, your brain can store up to 2.5 petabytes of data. This amount is more than 300 years of Netflix. If you are lucky, you will feel like you have enjoyed life for that long.