‘Times they are a-changin’. No matter what meaning you assign to the famous Bob Dylan lyric, it kind of holds true to what has been happening to us after a major upheaval in our lives and the world – the pandemic. Since Covid-19 hit us in 2020, we have experienced major life changes – from our work, to our leisure activities, and more.
But another thing that the pandemic has changed, which we don’t talk about enough is our perception of time itself.
As 2022 draws to a close, let’s talk about Covid-19 and its resultant changes have brought about a change in how we perceive time, and how this affects us:
Time perception is a person’s subjective experience of the passage of time or the perceived duration of events, which can vary greatly between individuals and/or in different circumstances. Although physical time appears to be more or less objective, psychological time is subjective and potentially malleable, as common phrases such as “time flies when you’re having fun” and “a watched pot never boils” demonstrate.
The various temporal illusions that we experience highlight this malleability, explain reports.
Time perception emerged as a field of study within psychology and neuroscience in the late nineteenth century, with the studies of one of the founders of modern experimental psychology, Gustav Theodor Fechner, on the relationship between perceived and measured time.
We perceive changes in or the passage of time, or what might be called “events in time,” rather than time itself, a report by what exactly is time states. We are particularly aware of the temporal relationships between events, and we perceive events as either simultaneous or sequential. We also have a sense of the order or sequence of these events.
Our sense of time appears to be a product of human evolution, and it is a complex activity that we develop and actively learn as we grow, rather than a purely automatic or innate process. As far as we know, humans are the only animals who are consciously aware of the passage of time and our own impermanence and mortality, as well as having a consciousness of the past that is more than instinct and behavioural conditioning.
Multiple studies have concluded that it has.
As people began to wonder why time seemed to be out of sync amid the pandemic, Simon Grondin, a psychologist at Laval University in Quebec City, and colleagues published a theory paper in an attempt to explain the phenomenon, a report by Science News explains.
Our time is typically punctuated by events such as dinner dates or daily commutes, Grondin and his colleagues wrote in Frontiers in Psychology in October 2020. Such occurrences serve as temporal markers. Days lose their identities when those landmarks vanish.
Cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists have been scrambling to document people’s changing relationship with the clock since the initial shutdowns. Early findings from those efforts confirm that the pandemic did cause many people around the world to experience time distortions.
For example, two surveys of over 5,600 people conducted in the United States during the first six months of the pandemic revealed that roughly two-thirds of respondents reported feeling strangely out of sync. Researchers reported in August in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy that days blurred together, the present loomed overly large, and the future felt uncertain.
according to a study at the University of California, Irvine, published online in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, documents how common the experience, known in psychiatric literature as “temporal disintegration,” was in the first six months of the pandemic. The researchers also discovered that pandemic-related secondary stresses like daily COVID-19-related media exposure, school closures, lockdowns, and financial difficulties were predictors of perceived time distortions.
“Continuity between past experiences, present life, and future hopes is critical to one’s well-being, and disruption of that synergy presents mental health challenges,” said UCI professor of nursing E. Alison Holman. “We were able to measure this in a nationally representative sample of Americans as they were experiencing a protracted collective trauma, which has never been done before. This is the first study to look at the prevalence and early predictors of time distortions. There are relatively new therapies that can be used to help people regain a more balanced sense of time, but we can’t provide that support if we don’t know who needs it.”
Researchers examined responses from a probability-based national sample of 5,661 people on the National Opinion Online Research Center AmericaSpeak panel about distorted time perceptions and other pandemic-related experiences. Surveys were conducted with respondents who had completed a mental and physical health survey prior to the COVID-19 outbreak on March 18-April 18, 2020 and September 26-October 26, 2020.
“Given that distortions in time perception are a risk factor for mental health problems, our findings have potential implications for public health. We are now looking at temporal disintegration, loneliness, and mental health outcomes over 18 months into the pandemic,” Holman told UCI News. “This will help us gain insight into how these common experiences during the pandemic work together, so we can better understand how to help people struggling with these challenges.”
According to a report by Zapir, our perception of time is affected by how quickly our brains process sensory input. It is also influenced by the senses, with studies showing that an auditory event appears to last longer than a visual one.
Chemicals, such as dopamine, also play a role. According to new research, we perceive time passing more quickly when we engage in pleasurable, rewarding activities that increase dopamine activity in the brain.
Damage to specific parts of the brain can significantly alter our perception of time. Medical conditions such as dyschronometria, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia are examples of this. According to a 2015 study, depression can influence how we perceive time.
Last but not least, our memory is both the cause and the result of erroneous time perception. When there are many changes in a short period of time, we tend to remember the event as lasting longer.
One of the central questions in time perception research is whether our bodies have a single “main clock,” or whether our perception of time is governed by multiple brain structures.
What we do know is that we have some sort of internal timing mechanism. The circadian clock keeps our mental and physiological processes in sync with the day-night cycle of the Earth. Disruptions in this rhythm can have an impact on our well-being and, as a result, our productivity.
According to a report by Bloomberg, a 1961 experiment demonstrates how our body perceives time: people were asked to estimate a 5-second interval while standing on a platform that was being pushed toward or away from a precipice. Those hurled toward the edge experienced a 20% slower rate of time than those pushed away.
One significant finding of this study is that time blurring is associated with stress. Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, created the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, which consists of about five dozen questions about attitudes and perceptions of the past, present, and future. According to Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory research, a balanced time perspective that is neither stuck in the past nor fatalistic about the future contributes significantly to well-being.
“It’s really difficult to disentangle,” Dr. Phillips said. Is time blurring the cause of mental health issues, or is it just a symptom of them?”
While it’s clearly established that altered time perception can affect the way process and treat our trauma, the report by Zapir also lists some ways a person can treat this ‘time blurring’ or ‘temporal disintegration.’
The first step is to recognise that there is a problem, the report states. Consider instances where you experienced “time loss” or where you significantly underestimated the duration of an event. What was the situation? What activities did you participate in? Which factors are most responsible for shifts in your perception of time? This will assist you in focusing on the source(s) of the distortion.
Ways to successfully manage time is to keep track of how much time has passed. If you’re still unsure about your biggest time-wasters, try time-tracking, maybe in the form of a handwritten journal, or it can be done with time-tracking apps.
One can also try to increase their Awareness of time, by keepung a clock (preferably an analogue one) in front of you. For a more powerful visualisation, use an hourglass.
This works, the report explains, because visualizing the passage of time makes you more aware of it because it requires more of your attention. Because some people find clocks distracting or experience anxiety and pressure to rush through their tasks when confronted with a clock, this method will not work for everyone.
Seeing the seconds tick away can make you want to stop procrastinating and get back to work on your priorities.
Using the knowledge gained from your time-tracking experiments, remove apps that promote procrastination (or at least try to minimise their usage). Instead of reflexively clicking “save for later” on every article you come across, stop and ask yourself “will I really read this later?”.
Similarly, as Laura Vanderkam advises in her book “168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think,” you can change your attitude toward unfinished tasks by being strict and honest with your priorities. If you find yourself saying, “I don’t have time for this,” try changing it to “this is not a priority,” the report says.
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