As the year draws to a close, most of us reflect on how quickly time has flown by. For adults, 2022 has flown by like water, while for children, 2022 has dragged on for much longer.

Why is that? Experts believe that our perception of time changes significantly as we age, causing certain periods to pass more quickly.

“Our perception of the day, the week, the year seems to be heavily influenced by our perspective. Are we experiencing the world in the present, or are we looking back in time?” Cindy Lustig, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told the Huffington Post.

He further added that the perception of time is also influenced by memory and how much you have experienced. For an 8-year-old, this week is a big part of their life. For an 80-year-old, a week is a much shorter period of time in their life, adding to the feeling that life has passed quickly.

A senior may feel like his or her days are passing by very slowly compared to an eight-year-old who is busy with schoolwork and clubs. However, when both of these people look back over a month or a year, the older person will feel like time has gone by much faster.

There are a few reasons. An 80-year-old’s life may not be much different than it was when he was 78 or 79. “He may be recalling fewer events, and the less colorful our lives are, the more we feel like we’re running away,” Lustig says.

On the contrary, new and interesting things make the days and months different, and that is why we differentiate them in our minds.

“Our brains are designed to register change,” says Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University.

The many experiences that children have in a day (such as learning new things at school, going to the ballet, or visiting a new friend’s house) contribute to the idea that they have plenty of time to devote to a variety of activities.

The same thing can be said for adults. “When we look back at a period of time when we experienced a lot of new things, like traveling, it feels like that period of time lasted longer than it actually did,” Lustig said.

Some experts also believe that the way we process what we see can also affect how we perceive time. An example is babies and young children, who perceive all images as new and therefore time passes very slowly.

“On the contrary, in adulthood, the brain receives fewer images than when it was trained when it was young. That is why we feel that time passes more quickly. In other words, there are physiological factors that influence our perception of time,” Bejan said.

While we can’t realistically stop time, there are ways to trick our brains into thinking we’re living longer.

One way to do this is by doing or experiencing something new and outside of your usual routine. This might mean pursuing a childhood hobby (like dancing or playing the violin), traveling to a city you’ve never been to, or taking a cooking class.

“Learning new things is another great way to spend your time. Remember that variety is the spice of life. You have to get out of your routine and use the time you have,” Bejan added.

Lustigová also highlights the importance of a phenomenon called mindfulness, which refers to the fact that a person pays maximum attention to a particular moment and does not escape from thoughts of the past or the future.

“None of us know how much time we have, but the interesting thing is that we actually have a lot of control over how we spend that time,” he added.