Why does waiting take so long?

The clock's time doesn't change

A second is always a second

When you wait for the bus or the end of a lesson, a minute always lasts exactly 60 seconds for the clock. Atomic clocks, the most precise in the world, are wrong by only one second over several tens of millions of years! They are not wearied by boredom, nor excited by a party.

But your brain is not a clock

Your brain does not count the seconds with a perfect machine. It estimates the passing time, a bit like you estimate the distance of a tree in the distance: by eye, and with possible errors. What you feel depends on what you are doing, on what you are feeling, and on what you are paying attention to.

N.B.:
Time really can flow slightly differently depending on speed and gravity: that is Einstein's relativity. For example, the clocks on GPS satellites run a little faster than those on the ground (by about 38 millionths of a second per day, in total). But these differences are tiny: they do not explain at all the impression that a wait is long. Here, it is the brain playing tricks.

A clock inside the head

The brain and its internal "tick-tock"

Researchers often imagine that your brain has a kind of internal clock: a small metronome that sends out "ticks" that the brain counts. The more "ticks" it counts, the more it feels that time has passed.

Attention, the tap that lets the "ticks" through

Imagine that attention is a tap: when you pay attention to time, the tap is wide open and all the "ticks" are counted. When you are absorbed in a game or a story, your attention is busy elsewhere: the tap closes a little, fewer "ticks" are counted, and time seems shorter to you.

That is exactly what happens when you wait: you keep an eye on the time, so you count almost all the "ticks", and it seems very long to you.

Waiting, having fun: where does your attention go?

Boredom stretches the minutes

Researchers asked people to look at an image for a few seconds, then to say how fast or slowly time seemed to pass for them. Result: it was boredom that best predicted the impression that time was passing slowly. The more bored people were, the more time seemed to drag.

Impatience too

When you wait for something specific (a present, the start of the holidays, the end of recess), you keep checking whether it has arrived. You compare what you were waiting for with what has happened: "Not yet?". This constant comparison makes time even slower.

The memory trick

Memories that are more or less rich

Our feeling of time happens not only during, but also afterwards, when we remember. A day full of new things (a trip, a party, a new game) leaves many memories: thinking back on it, it seems long. A day in which almost nothing happened leaves few memories and seems to have passed quickly once it is over. It is a bit strange: during the wait, time seems long to you, but when you think back on it later, that empty moment seems short.

And when we are afraid?

You may have already heard that time "slows down" when we are afraid. Researchers tested this with volunteers who let themselves fall 31 metres in free fall into a safety net. They estimated their own fall to be about 36% longer than that of the others. Yet their vision had not sped up: they did not see more details than in normal conditions. Scientists think that fear leaves richer memories, and that this is what makes the event seem longer when we remember it.

N.B.:
Felt time is therefore not a single "thing" that speeds up or slows down. Scientists think it is made up of several elements: attention, emotions, memory… and that each can play a different role depending on the situation.

Your turn: three little experiments

1. A game, two minutes

Ask a friend to give you a hidden stopwatch. While you stare at the wall doing nothing, try to guess when one minute has passed with your eyes closed. Start again while drawing or doing a puzzle. In which case did you underestimate time the most? Often, during an activity you enjoy, we feel the minute is not over when it has already passed.

2. The watched pot

Watch an hourglass or your phone's stopwatch for 30 seconds, while doing nothing else. Then start again while playing a word game with a friend, glancing at the stopwatch from time to time. In which case did the 30 seconds seem the longest?

3. The list of things to do

Write down five things you can do while waiting (listening, observing, singing in your head, making up a story…). The next time you wait, try one of them, and compare with the times when you only watched the clock.

N.B.:
These little experiments give variable results from one person to another. That's not a problem: it is exactly what researchers study!

How can you make waiting go faster?

Since attention plays a big role, the best trick is to turn your attention away from the clock. When you are busy with an activity you enjoy, you watch the time less. Observing what surrounds you, playing a word game, singing in your head, making up a story: all of that keeps your brain busy and leaves less room for counting the "ticks".

The same feeling in everyday life

• The waiting room: with nothing to do, the minutes seem very long.
• The car ride: when someone asks "Are we there yet?", the ride seems endless. When we play or chat, we arrive without noticing.
• The holidays: while they last, they pass very quickly because we are having fun. Thinking back on them, they seem long because they are full of memories.
• The day before a big event: impatience makes the day endless.