It’s because our perception of retrospective depends on number of new experiences while adulthood routine is not stored in memory.

As we get older, time seems to speed up, a sensation that many over 40 experience. This perception of time passing more quickly with age was confirmed by a study conducted by the University of Munich in 2005, on a sample of 499 participants.

Respondents aged over 40 reported that their childhood seemed to pass slowly, but once they reached their teenage years and adulthood, time began to accelerate. This feeling of time moving faster with age is not typically experienced by people under 40.

The key to understanding this phenomenon lies in how the brain encodes memories.

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Oour perception of time, especially in retrospect, depends on how many new experiences we have. The more novel or unfamiliar the experiences, the more likely they are encoded as memories in the brain. Routine activities, on the other hand, don’t get stored in memory in the same way.

So, when looking back, periods of life filled with new experiences seem longer than those dominated by routine, according to researchers.

In our youth, everything is new: we’re constantly learning, meeting new people, and experiencing life for the first time. These experiences are all encoded into our long-term memory, making our younger years seem rich with memories and, in retrospect, longer.

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However, as we age, life becomes more repetitive. We fall into routines, and fewer novel experiences are created. Consequently, we have fewer memories of our adult years, and this makes time seem to pass more quickly. When older people look back, they may think, “Where did the time go?” because fewer new experiences were recorded in their memories, leaving large chunks of their lives feeling as though they flew by.

Interestingly, how we perceive time also depends on our perspective. During an event, time may feel like it’s flying by if we’re having fun, but afterward, that same event can seem long because of how many new memories it generated. This explains why holidays or vacations, filled with new experiences, feel short while they’re happening but long in retrospect. Psychologists call it the "Holiday Paradox."

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The good news is that even as we age, we can slow down our perception of time by actively seeking out new experiences. Engaging in novel activities, learning new skills, and breaking from our routines can help create more memories, altering our retrospective perception of time. By doing this, we can make life feel fuller and richer, even as the years pass.

However, as our universe expands, time indeed is accelerating, other studies show.

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