Are you looking forward to Christmas? The anticipation of a holiday really makes time fly, research confirms
- Those who look forward to a vacation have the feeling that it will come sooner
- Feeling of time passing quickly, ‘not limited to one culture or annual event’
They say time flies when you’re having fun.
But it also flies when you look ahead, as new research shows.
Research has shown that people who look forward to their vacations feel like they will arrive sooner.
Researchers from Al-Sadiq University in Iraq surveyed more than 1,000 people in the UK and 600 people in Iraq about whether they thought Christmas or Ramadan came sooner each year.
Memory and attention to the passage of time were also measured, as were the participants’ age, gender and social lives.
Research has shown that people who look forward to a vacation feel like it will come faster (stock image)
Analysis found that 70 percent and 76 percent of people, respectively, said that Christmas or Ramadan seemed to come sooner each year.
They were more likely to report this perceived acceleration if they paid more attention to time, were less likely to make plans, or indicated that they enjoyed the holiday.
The research found that people in the UK were also more likely to think Christmas was coming if they said they had a good social life.
However, age does not seem to play a role in different perceptions, which contradicts the idea that time passes faster as we get older.
The researchers wrote in the journal Plos One: ‘The human experience of the passage of time is highly flexible and susceptible to distortions, making it appear as if time passes faster or slower than normal.
They say time flies when you’re having fun. But it also flies when you’re looking ahead, according to a new study (stock image)
Distortions of time can occur over short periods of time. For example, a meeting can feel like it has flown by or dragged by, depending on the context.
‘However, the widespread use of sayings such as ‘Christmas comes sooner every year’ suggests that distortions of time are also common for longer periods of time.’
They say their findings show that the sense of time passing quickly during major holidays “is not limited to one culture or annual event.”
They explained that boredom and clock watching are both associated with a greater awareness of the passage of time and the feeling of time slowing down.
However, their results show that when one is aware of the passage of time towards a future, pleasant event, it seems to pass more quickly.