Recent research published in the journal Brain and Behavior has revealed a fascinating aspect of human psychology: our perception of time can be altered by physical exercise. Specifically, individuals tend to experience time as moving slower when they are exercising compared to when they are at rest or after completing their exercise. This study is pioneering in its approach, using a standardized test to measure time perception during self-paced, maximal exercise—a scenario that closely mirrors real athletic performance.
The concept that psychological time can differ from chronological time was famously illustrated by Albert Einstein’s analogy about sitting with a pretty girl versus sitting on a hot stove. Previous research has found that physical exercise could distort our sense of time, making it seem like it moves more slowly. This phenomenon has been observed to potentially affect athletes who need to pace themselves against time or competitors.
However, previous studies were limited to fixed-intensity exercise, not accounting for the self-paced, variable-intensity efforts seen in competitive sports. This gap in research led to the current study, aimed at understanding how time perception is affected during exercise that mirrors a competitive setting.
“I have long been interested in how people perceive the passing of time and whether this is impacted by particular events. In the case of exercise, time seems to drag in certain circumstances and yet at others moves very fast. I was intrigued to examine the performance implications of this and whether this likely impacted both results and adherence,” said study author Andrew Mark Edwards, a professor and Head of School for Psychology & Life Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University and author of The Psychopath.
The study involved 33 participants, a mix of moderately and highly active individuals, who were not professional cyclists but were in good health and capable of participating in physical trials. They engaged in a series of cycling trials on a Velotron cycling ergometer, which were designed to simulate a 4-kilometer race. During these trials, participants’ perception of time was assessed at multiple points: before exercise, during, and after, with intervals during the exercise at specific distances.
Participants performed the time perception task by estimating how long 30-second and 60-second intervals lasted without any feedback on their accuracy, to prevent bias in subsequent tests. The cycling trials included different conditions: solo trials, trials with a passive companion avatar, and competitive trials against an active opponent avatar.
The researchers found that participants perceived time as moving slower during their physical activity compared to periods before or after exercising. This finding was consistent regardless of the specific moments during the exercise at which time perception was measured — whether early or late in the session.
The results indicated that the slowing of time perception was not influenced by the three different conditions. This suggests that the presence of competitors or the nature of the competitive environment does not alter how we perceive time during exercise, highlighting that it is the act of exercising itself that primarily influences time perception.
“The take home message for this study is that our perception of time is indeed impacted by exercise,” Edwards told PsyPost. “This could be useful information in terms of accurately pacing sport and exercise activities such as devising strategies to mitigate periods where time appears to drag and can be demotivating.”
Another notable aspect of the study’s findings was the lack of correlation between the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and time perception. This is particularly interesting because it suggests that the subjective intensity of the exercise does not alter the perception of time. This contradicts some earlier hypotheses which posited that higher physical exertion might enhance the distortion of time perception.
“Our study showed that exercise per se impacted time perception but in this experiment did not discriminate between different stages of the exercise such as when feeling fresher or more tired. Our previous study seemed to indicate this was the case but more work is required to clarify context,” Edwards said.
While this study advances our understanding of psychological time during exercise, it also highlights several areas for future research. One limitation is the use of non-professional cyclists, which might affect the generalizability of the findings to professional athletes or people accustomed to high-intensity competitive sports.
“This was a study of recreationally active participants in only one mode of exercise so the results ought to be considered in the context of that activity/population,” Edwards explained. “More work is required to see if this is widely applicable.”
Future studies could also look at how manipulating awareness and focus during exercise could affect time perception. This could have practical applications not just for athletes, but also for clinical settings where exercise is used as part of therapy or rehabilitation.
“The main strands of the work are to see how we can motivate people to engage with exercise and avoid/mitigate negative associations with time appearing to move slowly,” Edwards said. “We are also interested in strategies to improve performance through external reinforcement and pace setting to redress time distortions.”
“We hope people enjoy the work and look out for our further studies in this area including among professional sports people.”
The study, “The perception of time is slowed in response to exercise, an effect not further compounded by competitors: behavioral implications for exercise and health,” was authored by Andrew Mark Edwards, Stein Gerrit Paul Menting, Marije Titia Elferink-Gemser, and Florentina Johanna Hettinga.