Why Time Feels Faster Every Year — And the Simple Trick That Slows It Back Down

Summers used to last forever. Now whole months vanish. Your brain knows why.

Remember when a single school year felt like a decade? Now entire seasons evaporate. It's not your imagination — perceived time really does accelerate with age.

One reason is proportion: a year is a fifth of a five-year-old's life, but a fortieth of a forty-year-old's. Each new year is a smaller slice of everything you've known.

The bigger factor is novelty. Your brain timestamps new experiences heavily. Childhood is packed with firsts; adult routine gives your memory almost nothing to file, so the months compress.

The fix is almost suspiciously simple: do new things. New routes, new skills, new places. Novelty forces your brain to record more — and recorded time is remembered as longer time.