As we age, time seems to slip away more quickly—a phenomenon neuropsychologists attribute largely to how our brains process novelty and memorial encoding. In childhood, nearly every experience is new—from playing games to learning a skill—creating a wealth of distinctive memories. This abundance of memorable “snapshots” makes days feel long and richly textured .

In contrast, adult life often settles into routines: work, chores, errands. Fewer novel events lead to fewer encoded memories. Retrospectively, days collapse into shorter blurbs—time seems to have flown.

This perception ties into neuroscience: time perception and memory share neural pathways, so declined novelty results in truncated subjective timelines. Additional factors—like slower neural processing, fewer visual fixations by eyes, dip in dopamine, and fatigue—mean older brains sample less information per moment, accelerating subjective time .

Psychological models further explain that each year represents a progressively smaller fraction of life: at age 10, a year is 10 % of life; at 50, it’s only 2 %, making time feel faster as we age.

Encapsulating both memory theories and biological changes, experts assert that embracing novelty—through travel, learning, new routines—can slow perceived time’s acceleration.