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Why Does Time Go Slow for Kids But Fast for Adults? | The Mind-Blowing Science Explained · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

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Picture this. You're sitting in class on a
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Monday morning, watching the clock ticks so slowly you're
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convinced it's actually going backwards.
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Every second feels like an hour, every minute feels like a year.
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You're pretty sure you've aged about 50 years just waiting for
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lunch break. But then you ask your teacher
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how their weekend was and they look genuinely confused and say
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something like weekend. That was 3 seconds ago.
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Here's the really weird part. You're both right.
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Time is playing the strangest trick on both of you, and
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nobody's talking about it. Today, we're going to crack open
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one of the universe's biggest mysteries, the one that makes
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kids feel like summer holidays last forever while adults blink
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and suddenly it's Christmas again.
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By the end of this episode, you'll discover why your brain
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is secretly a time machine, why pizza can explain the meaning of
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life, and how you can actually bend time without breaking any
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laws of physics. Sound impossible?
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Good, because the truth is even weirder than you think.
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So grab your detective hat, forget everything you thought
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you knew about clocks, and get ready to have your mind properly
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blown. Curious kid cast?
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Here we go. Questions popping minds will
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blow. Big ideas.
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They're taking flight. Let's explore.
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Feel the lights. Why, what, where and how.
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Big answers. We'll find them now.
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Let's bring it home. Welcome to the Curious Kid cast,
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where we answer the questions that make your brain do
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cartwheels. I'm your host, Andy, and today
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we're talking about time. Not the boring what time is
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dinner kind of time, but the really strange, bendy, stretchy
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kind of time that lives inside your head.
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Here's the thing. You've probably heard grown-ups
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say stuff like wow, this year has absolutely flown by, or I
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can't believe you're already 10. Where did the time go?
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And you're sitting there thinking, excuse me, adult
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person, but that school term felt like it lasted
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approximately forever, and 1/2 for most kids time feels pretty
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slow. Waiting a week until your
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birthday? Might as well be waiting for the
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next Ice Age. Those 10 minutes before dinner?
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They stretch out longer than the world's longest piece of chewing
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gum. And don't even get me started on
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car journeys. Are We there Yet?
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Is basically the theme song of childhood.
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But ask most adults and they'll tell you the complete opposite.
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Years whoosh by like they're late for a meeting.
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One minute it's January, the next minute it's somehow
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December again and they're wondering where they put their
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winter coat. So what's going on here?
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Is time actually changing? Did someone secretly speed up
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the universe when we weren't looking?
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Spoiler alert, Nope. But our brains, oh, our brains
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are definitely up to some sneaky tricks.
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Let's start with a big question. What even is time, really?
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I mean, apart from that thing that makes you late for school
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when you can't find your other shoe.
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Time is actually how we measure change.
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The Earth does a full spin. Boom, that's a day.
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The Earth goes all the way around the sun doing its little
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cosmic dance. That's a year.
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Your heart goes thump, thump about once every second.
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That's a moment we humans got pretty clever and invented
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clocks and calendars to chop time into neat little pieces.
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Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years.
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You know, the usual suspects. And here's the thing, these
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chunks never really change. A minute is always 60 seconds,
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no matter how bored you are in math class.
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An hour is always 60 minutes even if you're having the best
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time ever at your friend's house.
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Your birthday is always the same distance apart a full year,
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whether you like it or not. So when someone says time is
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going faster, that's not exactly accurate.
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Time itself doesn't speed up or slow down in everyday life
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unless you're near a black hole, but that's a story for another
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episode. And also, please stay away from
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black holes. They're not great for your
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health. What actually changes is our
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brains feeling of time. The clock keeps ticking at the
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same rate, but time in our minds?
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Oh that's stretchy. Sometimes it feels long and
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draggy like cold honey. Sometimes it zips past like a
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squirrel who just spotted a dog. Now believe it or not, your
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brain has its own built in time machine.
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I know, cool, right? Before you get too excited, it
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doesn't actually let you travel through time.
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You can't go back and change that embarrassing thing you said
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last Tuesday. Sorry about that, but your brain
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does constantly keep track of time passing.
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Scientists call this your internal clock, which sounds way
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fancier than it actually is. It's not like you've got a tiny
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grandfather clock in there bonging away between your ears.
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This clock gets messed with by loads of things.
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Your attention, your emotions, how bored or excited you are,
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how many new things are happening, and how much memory
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your brain is storing. It's basically the most
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unreliable clock ever invented. You've probably already noticed
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its tricks. When you're bored in class,
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staring at the clock, watching the second hand move, those
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seconds crawl along like sleepy snails.
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But when you're having the absolute best day ever with your
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friends, the hours disappear faster than biscuits at break
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time. Same amount of real time,
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totally different. Feeling weird, right?
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Let me give you an example. Imagine two different days.
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Day one is super ordinary. Tuesday you wake up, eat
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breakfast, go to school, do some maths and reading and writing,
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eat lunch, do more lessons, go home, do homework, eat dinner,
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go to bed. You've basically done this same
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routine about 1000 times before. Nothing new to see here, folks.
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Now imagine Day 2, which I'm calling Mega Adventure Day.
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You go to a new theme park for the first time, ride the biggest
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roller coaster you've ever seen, which is probably also the
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scariest thing since your uncle's attempts at cooking.
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You eat strange food you've never tried, see a magician who
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makes a rabbit appear from literally nowhere, win a prize,
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get lost and then found, and watch fireworks at the end of
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the day. Which day feels longer when you
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remember it? Obviously Mega adventure day,
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right? That's because new experiences
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make your brain sit up and pay attention.
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Like a dog who just heard the word walk.
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Your brain thinks, whoa, this is important stuff, I'd better
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remember all of this. So it records loads of details.
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What you saw, what you heard, what you smelled, how you felt,
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what that weird food tasted like, Everything.
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Later, when you look back on the day, your brain has tons of
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memories to play back. It feels rich and full, like a
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huge, thick book that could probably stop a door.
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Regular Tuesday, though, your brain has seen it all before.
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It doesn't bother saving every little detail because it already
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knows the pattern. It's like, yeah, yeah.
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Breakfast, school, homework. Been there, done that, Got the
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T-shirt. So later when you look back,
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it's more like a thin leaflet that just says got up, went to
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school, came home, the end. Not exactly thrilling stuff.
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Here's the interesting part. When we remember a day with lots
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of memories, it feels longer. A day with few memories feels
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shorter. It's like your brain is playing
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tricks on you, but in a sort of helpful way.
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Now think about your life as a whole.
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When you're little, loads of things are brand new.
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Your first day of school, your first sleepover, your first time
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swimming without arm bands, your first time losing a tooth and
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freaking out about it. Your first holiday.
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You're a first snowman that actually looked like a snowman
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instead of just a lumpy pile. Because everything is new.
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Your brain records tons and tons of memories, so those early
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years feel long and full. When you look back, they're
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packed with firsts. But as you get older, more days
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start to look the same. School homework screens, same
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route to school, same house, same town, same sandwich in your
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lunch box that you're getting a bit tired of to be honest.
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You still have fun, obviously, but there's less that's
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completely brand new. And when grown-ups look back on
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their year, their brains might go work.
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Emails. More work, washing up bed,
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weekend work. Again, not exactly memory making
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material. Fewer strong memories equals the
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year feeling like it raced by faster than a cheetah riding a
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rocket. That's pretty fast, by the way.
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OK, here comes my favorite bit. I'm going to explain this with
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pizza, because everything's better with pizza.
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Even time. Especially time.
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Imagine your entire life so far is a pizza.
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A delicious cheesy pizza of existence.
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When you're 5 years old, one year is like a big slice of that
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pizza. It's 1/5 of your whole life.
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That's huge. That's basically the slice with
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all the best toppings. When you're 10, a year is 110th
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of your life. Still a decent slice, but not
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quite as massive. When someone's 40 a year is
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140th of their life, that's a much smaller slice.
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Barely even enough cheese on that one.
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So to a 5 year old, a year feels enormous.
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It's a massive chunk of everything they've ever
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experienced. To a 40 year old, a year feels
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much smaller in comparison. It's just another slice in a
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very large pizza. Your brain doesn't usually
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calculate it's been exactly 365 days since last year.
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Instead it kind of thinks how does this year compared to all
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the other years I've lived. And as your life gets longer,
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each year feels shorter in comparison.
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For a 6 year old waiting one whole year for the next
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birthday, that's like waiting an entire lifetime.
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For an adult, one year is just another year.
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They've had loads of them already.
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They've probably forgotten what they did in at least half of
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them. Have you ever travelled
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somewhere new and thought, wow, that journey felt really long,
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but then the next time you did the same journey it felt much
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shorter? It's not that your car suddenly
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turned into a spaceship, although that would be awesome.
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It's that on the first trip, your brain didn't know what to
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expect. It was busy paying attention to
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everything. What's that building?
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Oh, a weird shop? Look, a giant cow statue?
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Why is there a giant cow statue? Who makes these decisions?
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Every moment felt fresh and new, but on the second trip, your
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brain already knew the route. It relaxed and stopped noticing
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so much. It basically put itself on
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autopilot. The same thing happens with
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daily routines. Same breakfast, same walk to
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school, same order of lessons, same journey home.
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Your brain stops recording as many details.
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It's like it presses a quiet Fast forward button without even
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asking permission. To younger kids who are still
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learning those routines, days can feel longer.
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Everything's still kind of new and interesting.
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To older people who've done the same thing thousands of times,
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days can blur together like watercolor paint in the rain.
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So if a grown up says I blinked and the summer was gone, it
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might be because a lot of their days looked very similar.
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Same coffee, same commute, same desk, same.
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How was your day at dinner? Your emotions also play a
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massive part in how time feels. Let me explain.
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When you're scared or nervous, like waiting for a test result
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or standing in line for a huge roller coaster that looks like
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it was designed by someone who doesn't like people very much.
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Your heart beats faster, your breathing changes, your body
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goes on high alert, your brain goes into super watchful mode.
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Time feels very slow because you're noticing every single
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second, every tick of the clock, every person ahead of you in the
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queue, every weird noise the roller coaster makes.
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But when you're happy and busy, like playing your favorite game
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with friends, the hours can disappear into thin air.
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You might look up and say, what? It can't be bedtime already.
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That's not fair time. You've betrayed me.
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That's because your attention was focused on having fun, not
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on the clock. When you're bored, though, like
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sitting in a waiting room with nothing to do except count
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ceiling tiles, every minute feels like 5 or maybe even 10,
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possibly 100. So here's the rule.
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Scared, bored, or nervous? Time feels long and stretchy.
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Excited, happy, or absorbed in something.
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Time feels short and zippy. Adults often spend a lot of time
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doing the same everyday jobs, shopping, cleaning, working at a
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desk, replying to emails that probably could have been text
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messages. Their brains mostly go on
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autopilot so the days blur into each other like 1 long, slightly
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boring movie. Kids have more moments of big
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feelings and new experiences, so time feels fuller and slower.
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Lucky you, honestly. Here's a fun brain trick that'll
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really bake your noodle. Time can feel one way while it's
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happening in a completely different way when we remember
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it later during the moment. A long car trip can feel like it
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lasts forever. A school day might feel super
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slow, like you're waiting through treacle.
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But looking back later, you might think actually that week
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went kind of fast. Or you remember only the fun
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bits and forget the boring bits. It's like your brain is editing
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your life story and cutting out all the dull scenes.
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Our brains don't save all of time equally.
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They choose certain moments as important and store them more
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clearly. These can be new things,
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emotional things, surprising things, scary things, exciting
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things. Basically anything that's not
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just Tuesday happened again. When adults look back on a year,
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they mostly remember big events. Holidays, birthdays, weddings,
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moving house, that time they accidentally wore two different
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shoes to work, A few special days, maybe a funny or
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embarrassing moment. All the ordinary days get
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squished together in their mind like a massive ball of play DoH.
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So the year feels like it flew past even though they lived
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through every single day of it. Kids, on the other hand, are
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still having lots of firsts and storing more memories when they
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look back. The same year feels long and
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full, packed with stuff like a really good sandwich with loads
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of layers. OK, so we know time isn't really
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speeding up, it's just our brains being weird.
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But here's the question you're probably thinking, can we trick
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our brain back? Can we slow down how time feels?
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Good news, yes, a little bit. You can't change the actual
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clock, but you can change how full your time feels.
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And I've got some ideas for you. First, try more new things.
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You don't have to fly to another country or climb Mount Everest.
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New can be small. Walk a different route to
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school. Try a new hobby or sport.
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Read a book in a strange place, like under a table or in a
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cupboard if you can fit. Eat something you've never
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tasted before. Maybe not something weird from
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the back of the fridge, though. The more new experiences your
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brain records, the richer your memories become and time feels
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fuller. It's like adding more
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ingredients to that life pizza we talked about earlier.
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Second, pay attention on purpose.
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Sometimes we rush through life without really noticing it.
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Try this next time you're outside.
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Stop for one minute. Look around and see five things
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you've never really looked at before.
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A pattern on a wall, A tiny weed, A cloud shaped like a
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dinosaur, an insect doing whatever insects do.
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Listen for three different sounds.
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A bird, a car, someone's conversation, wind in the trees,
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your own breathing. This is called mindfulness,
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which is a fancy word for actually noticing stuff.
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It helps your brain record more details.
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Third, create memory moments. Pick certain things and make
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them special. A Friday night family game.
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A monthly weird dinner where everyone eats wearing silly hats
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for no reason. A yearly back to school photo in
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the same spot so you can see how much you've grown.
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Little traditions like this stand out in your memory when
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you look back. They become markers that make
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the year feel full instead of empty.
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They're like bookmarks in the story of your life.
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And 4th Talk about your day. Telling someone about your day
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helps your brain save it. At dinner or bedtime, you could
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share one thing that was fun, one thing that was tricky, and
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one thing you're grateful for. The more you describe it, the
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more your brain stores it. It's like hitting the save
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button. So let's answer our big
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question. Is time really speeding up?
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Nope. A second is still a second.
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A year is still a year. The universe hasn't changed its
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mind about how fast time goes. But your experience of time
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changes because first, you're older, so each year is a smaller
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slice of your life. Pizza.
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Second, you have fewer brand new experiences, so your brain
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records less. Third, routines make days blur
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together. 4th, your feelings and attention change how time feels.
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And 5th, when you look back, your brain only replays the
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highlight moments. So to kids, time often feels
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slower and thicker. To adults, time can feel fast
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and slippery, like trying to hold onto a greased up eel.
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Which is not something I recommend trying, by the way.
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Here's the wonderful, slightly strange thing.
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You are the time traveller in your own life.
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The clock on the wall marches on at the same steady pace for
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everyone, but inside your brain, time can stretch like chewing
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gum or zip by like a rocket on roller skates.
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You can't pause it, you can't rewind it.
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You definitely can't Fast forward through the boring bits.
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But you can fill it. You can try new things, notice
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little details, make silly traditions, talk about your day,
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and create memories that future you will look back on and smile.
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Then when someone says wow, this year has gone so fast, you'll be
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able to think maybe, but I packed it full of amazing
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moments. Time might not really be
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speeding up, but your curiosity can slow it down just enough to
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enjoy the ride. All right curious listeners,
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it's time for the Curious Kid cast quiz.
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I'm going to ask you 3 questions about what we've learned today.
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After each question, you'll get 5 seconds to think of your
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answer. Ready.
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Let's do this Question one. If you're 10 years old, what
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fraction of your life is one year?
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Is it one, 5th, 110th, or 120th? The answer is 110th because
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you've lived 10 years. So one year is 1 out of 10,
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which makes each year feel like a pretty big chunk of your life.
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Question 2 Which type of day creates more memories in your
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brain? A day full of new experiences or
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a day doing the same routine you always do.
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The answer is a day full of new experiences.
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Your brain pays way more attention to new stuff and
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records lots of details, which makes the day feel longer and
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fuller when you remember it. Question three, true or false?
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Time actually speeds up as you get older.
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Like the universe literally makes time go faster.
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False, time itself stays exactly the same.
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A second is always a second. It's our brains feeling of time
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that changes, not actual time. Nice try universe, but you can't
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fool us. And that's it for today's
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episode of the Curious Kid cast. I hope your brain enjoyed that
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little workout. Now you know why time plays
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tricks on us and better yet, you know how to fill your time with
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memories that'll make it feel rich and full.
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If you enjoyed this episode, why not share with a friend who's
19:36
always asking, are we there yet in the car?
19:39
And if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button so you
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never miss an episode. We've got loads more curious
19:44
questions coming your way. Hey, we'll.
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Let your questions rise. Listen up to the endless sky.
19:54
Everyone is as far so bright. Curious Kid cast Ignite the
20:00
Light. Got a question you'd like
20:40
answered? Maybe something that keeps you
20:42
up at night wondering, or something that made you go huh,
20:45
that's weird. During science class, head over
20:47
to our website at curiouskidcast.com and send it
20:50
our way. We read every single question,
20:53
and yours might just become the next episode.
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Until next time, stay curious, keep asking questions, and
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remember time might be weird and bendy and confusing, but that's
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what makes life interesting. This has been the Curious Kid
21:09
cast. I'm Andy and I'll catch you in
21:11
the next episode.