Time is a unique sense, and this may contribute to time distortion’s powerful effect. It is a spiral of distress and time perception, making us feel ever the more like we are living in a time warp. Distress makes time seem to slow down, which in turn exacerbates distress. There is a downward spiral during stressful waiting periods. Is it any wonder then that time seems to move so slowly? Daily, we are bombarded by news of rising COVID-19 deaths while at the same time subjected to unrelenting political advertisements alerting us to the disasters that may lie ahead if the other candidate wins. Have you ever been really frightened, and it felt like time stretched on and on, when in fact it was just a couple of minutes? This is because when exposed to threatening stimuli, people increase their time estimates. The opposite is also true, as when we are in a creative flow, time seems to fly. A felt sense of slowed time is also experienced in everyday life when we feel bored, time feels slow as molasses. People who are depressed are temporally desynchronized and often experience life at half its standard speed. And our present moment-the very thing that is filling the gap of the unknown future-is riddled with stress.Īltered time perception has been termed, “temporal disintegration” or “temporal discontinuity,” and has been shown to be related to mood state. Who will get sick? What will happen to our democracy? Will there be a peaceful transition of power? Researchers have found that without illusions of a knowable future, we tend to live more in the present moment. We no longer have our illusory assumptions that the future is knowable and predictable. The invisible threat of COVID-19 and the upcoming presidential election are a one-two punch to our felt sense of security. Suspended as it moves, why does the present seem isolated from the continuity of time? The reasons go beyond the changes to our daily routines and structures that COVID-19 has wrought. It may seem dissolved even though the structure of minutes-hours-days has remained the same. You know it’s now the fall and that seasons have passed, but do you really feel it?
Maybe you’re finding the moments ticking by all too slowly as you await the upcoming presidential election. Or, perhaps it feels that life is spinning so fast.
Have you noticed that since March, our conversations no longer begin with the weather but rather how weird time feels? Every day can feel like Groundhog Day, as tedious as the one that preceded it. Have you been wondering why time sometimes drags and sometimes flies by during COVID? Cindy Baum-Baicker, a clinical psychologist based out of Philadelphia, explains why this is in her piece that was originally published in Psychology Today:
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