Watchman News

Dementia is not a normal part of aging, contrary to what some people believe. In fact, many healthy individuals live their entire lives without developing any form of dementia — yet today, more and more people are gradually experiencing poor cognitive function as they age.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),1 the number of dementia cases among adults 65 years and older is expected to balloon to 14 million by 2060 — that’s nearly a threefold increase from 10 years ago. This makes it even more important to implement strategies that may help protect against this disease.

In August 2024, The Lancet journal2 released a report detailing new evidence about dementia care and prevention, identifying some modifiable risk factors. According to the report, sensory impairments, even those that are mild to moderate, are associated with developing dementia later in life.

Hearing Loss Identified as a Risk Factor for Dementia

Hearing loss or “presbycusis” is one of the risk factors listed by the featured report. An estimated 20% of people worldwide suffer from this condition, and of those affected, 62% are around 50 years old or older.3

The study authors looked at five meta-analyses and determined that all found a link between hearing loss and dementia. The meta-analyses also indicate that as hearing loss progresses, the dementia risk becomes higher, saying that “the magnitude of this risk increase varied between studies, from a 4% increase to a 24% increase in dementia risk per 10 dB [decibels] decrease in hearing ability.”4

A separate review published in the Neuroscientist journal5 looked at the sensory impairments associated with dementia, and pinpointed several mechanisms by which hearing loss may lead to cognitive decline. These include brain changes in the hearing pathway and mental overload that occurs when a hard-of-hearing person strains to understand what’s being said. According to the researchers:

“We have suggested that increased activity in medial temporal lobe mechanisms for auditory cognition during real-world listening, acting to compensate for peripheral hearing loss, might augment the early pathologic mechanisms for AD [Alzheimer’s disease] in the same areas.

Other rodent work has shown that increased external auditory stimulation improves spatial cognition and decreases amyloid deposition in the auditory cortex and hippocampus in a genetic mouse model of AD.”6

The Lancet Adds Vision Loss to Its List of Modifiable Risk Factors
The Lancet report also included vision loss as a sensory impairment associated with dementia. This addition was done after they acquired “considerable new evidence” connecting these two conditions. Based on their findings, nearly 2% of dementia cases were linked to having untreated vision loss in a person’s senior years.7 The study authors explained:

“This evidence includes a meta-analysis of 14 prospective cohort studies, with follow-up of 3.7 to 14.5 years, including 6,204,827 older adults who were cognitively intact at baseline, of whom 171,888 developed dementia. Vision loss was associated with a pooled RR [relative risk] for dementia of 1.47.”8

In 2023, a review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences noted that glaucoma,9 the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide, shares some biomarkers with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the researchers, “[t]he pathophysiological process underlying AD is in many aspects similar to that of glaucoma. Numerous epidemiological studies using immunohistochemical and animal data support the link between the two diseases.”10

The ‘Use It or Lose It’ Principle Applies to Brain Tissue

In an article published in The New York Times,11 the researchers provided a simple explanation as to why sensory impairments may be associated with dementia, and it has something to do with how you use your brain tissue.

Basically, if you have sensory loss, there’s less input coming into your brain. As a result, your brain undergoes less stimulation, which can lead to more atrophy — this means you either use your brain tissue or you lose it. As reported in The New York Times:

“The area of the brain that processes auditory information is close to the region most affected by Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting there may be an anatomical connection. Visual information is fed into another part of the brain, but how we use that information activates many different regions.

‘As you’ve reduced activation of certain areas of the brain, you get faster rates of atrophy there to some degree,’ said Dr. Frank Lin, a professor of otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. ‘Which you can imagine has cascading effects on other areas of brain function and structure, as well.’”12

Sensory impairments during adulthood can also lead to social withdrawal, as many people who struggle with these disorders tend to stop engaging with others. This increases loneliness, which is also a risk factor for dementia.

Dr. Gill Livingston, a professor of psychiatry at University College London and the lead author of The Lancet report, shares that people who are in the early stages of dementia may also develop symptoms faster when they lose their sense of hearing or vision. This is because they typically use up more brain power when trying to recognize blurry vision or garbled sounds, leaving fewer resources for everyday memory and cognition.13

She also highlights the importance of addressing these sensory impairments early on, to reduce your dementia risk. Dementia has currently no known treatment or cure, which is why understanding the link between these two modifiable risk factors and dementia may help researchers develop new management or treatment strategies.

“Some people will still develop dementia, but if they address these risks they should have a longer, healthier life and will not have dementia for such a long time,” Livingston explains. “It’s never too early or too late to take action, with opportunities to make an impact at any stage of life.”14

Excessive Noise Can Lead to Hearing Loss

Your sense of hearing can deteriorate naturally and may even start during early adulthood. There are numerous factors that may lead to this condition, although in some people, the deterioration occurs faster, possibly due to genetics or, more commonly, constant exposure to noise and loud sounds.

“Isolation and Dementia — Why We Should Protect Our Ears,” a documentary from the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), embedded above, tackles the topic of hearing damage brought on by noise pollution. It highlights some of the day-to-day situations wherein people are inevitably exposed to excessive amounts of noise — working in nightclubs, busy kitchens and even doing landscape work, and how it has affected their health.

Thomas Sünder, a 49-year-old who worked as a full-time DJ, shares how his health gradually deteriorated after being exposed to over 100 decibels of continuous noise and music every night. He suddenly collapsed due to a severe vertigo attack in the middle of a gig. Soon after, he experienced tinnitus (a ringing sound in the ear), followed by sudden hearing loss.

“I woke up and suddenly felt like I had cotton in my ear. But there was none, and everything was muffled on one side,” he said. As a result, he can no longer stand staying in places with too much noise. Even while wearing custom ear plugs for protection, he says the noise in the club is still unbearable. “It’s so loud that my body is reacting and I’m nervous about my ears, because my ears are already my weak point and it makes me super uncomfortable,” he shares.

Sünder’s condition isn’t an isolated case. In fact, more than 1 billion people worldwide are now at high risk of hearing loss due to constant exposure to noise pollution.15 And when hearing loss occurs, brain deterioration follows.

Dr. Bernhard Junge-Hülsing, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, explains that your brain deteriorates faster if you can’t hear well. It also deteriorates when you’re not interacting with others or are not participating in life. As explained in the documentary:

“Our auditory center works like a muscle that needs to be trained. New auditory impressions cause a constant adjustment in the brain. However, this means that if the auditory system is no longer activated with new impulses, the ‘muscle’ becomes paralyzed. This could even lead to dementia.”

Using Hearing Aids May Help Protect Your Cognitive Health

Sünder has since quit being a DJ and is now working as a hearing aid acoustician in Hamburg, helping other people who are also dealing with hearing loss. He also assists people in finding the appropriate hearing restorative devices to improve their hearing. With modern technology now coming up with better designs and more sophisticated modifications, there could soon be more efficient ways for these devices to address functional hearing loss.

In the U.S., around 38 million adults are dealing with hearing loss; 29 million of them could benefit from using hearing aids.16 What’s more, studies have found that using these tools may help with brain health, protecting against the onset of dementia.

A 2023 meta-analysis published in the journal JAMA Neurology found that using hearing restorative devices led to a 19% decrease in risk factors related to cognitive decline, and a 3% improvement in cognitive test scores.17

Similar findings were seen during a three-year, multicenter, randomized controlled trial, dubbed the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study.18 They found that in populations who are at high risk of cognitive decline, those who wore hearing restorative devices for three years had less cognitive decline versus those who didn’t use these tools. The researchers concluded:

“Results from the ACHIEVE study add to the growing evidence base that suggests addressing modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia could be impactful in reducing the future global burden of dementia.

Based on evidence from the ACHIEVE study, hearing loss may be a particularly important global public health target for dementia prevention efforts given that hearing loss is highly prevalent among older adults and is treatable with an established intervention (i.e., hearing aids and related support services).”19

Other Strategies to Protect Your Sense of Hearing

Prevention is always better than treatment after the fact and, in the case of hearing loss, is particularly important. This is because, as the featured documentary mentions, your sense of hearing does not regenerate, unlike your other organs. It’s crucial to take the necessary measures to protect your ears, to reduce your risk of hearing loss and avoid the need for hearing aids in the first place.

Protecting your ears from loud noises is one strategy. If you’re prone to unsafe listening practices, such as using earbuds or headphones at high volumes or always frequenting loud entertainment venues (like concerts), your risk for noise-induced hearing loss increases.20

Hence, a commonsense approach is to practice safe listening habits and taking the necessary precautions when going to loud environments, such as wearing protective earplugs. This is particularly important if exposure to loud noises is part of your daily routine.

It’s also a good idea to take regular listening breaks from using personal audio devices to give your ears a rest. For more tips in protecting your ears from noise, read my article, “The Damaging Impact of Noise on Your Health.”

I also recommend getting proper nourishment to keep your ears healthy. A 2023 study published in PLOS Biology21 found that plant-based compounds called phytosterols, which are similar in structure to cholesterol, may help improve the function of your outer hair cells in the inner ear, helping amplify sounds. According to the researchers:

“Our findings point towards the importance of cholesterol homeostasis in the inner ear as an innovative therapeutic strategy in preventing and/or delaying hearing loss.”22

Nutrients That Nourish Your Eyes

As for your vision, remember that the health of your eyes largely depends on your lifestyle; one important aspect that you need to take care of is your diet. Providing your eyes with the proper nourishment can go a long way toward keeping them healthy well into your senior years.

Carotenoids like lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin are plant compounds with potent antioxidant qualities. They protect your macula, the part of your retina that’s responsible for your vision, from blue light and harmful ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun and other light sources. Your body cannot produce these nutrients, which is why you need to get them from your diet. Some of the best sources include:

Green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli
Orange- and yellow-colored fruits and vegetables like squash and bell peppers
Eggs from free-range, pastured hens (choose those with bright orange yolks, which indicate elevated levels of lutein and zeaxanthin)

However, there’s another valuable antioxidant that’s far superior to these — astaxanthin. Previous studies have supported its protective effects against eye-related disorders, such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD),23 which is why many researchers believe it to be the most powerful antioxidant ever discovered for eye health.

Astaxanthin easily crosses into the tissues of your eye and exerts its effects safely and with more potency than any of the other carotenoids, without adverse reactions. Specifically, astaxanthin has been shown to ameliorate or prevent light-induced damage, photoreceptor cell damage,24 ganglion cell damage and damage to the neurons of the inner retinal layers.

Apart from its positive effects on vision health, a 2024 review published in the journal Nutrients also found that astaxanthin may have profound benefits for your brain and may protect against neurodegeneration:25

“AST [astaxanthin] has the potential to improve cognitive function, facilitate neuroprotection, and slow neurodegeneration. This claim is made based on the established positive effects of AST on different branches of memory and response time, as well as the implications of work utilizing biomarkers in human populations.”

Avoid Linoleic Acid and Blue Light to Protect Your Vision

Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) like linoleic acid (LA) can severely damage your vision — and your overall health, for that matter — which is why it’s crucial to ignore the mainstream advice to consume seed oils or vegetable oils, which are loaded with these harmful fats. In fact, I believe that LA is the most destructive ingredient in your diet and is largely responsible for the epidemic of modern diseases that are rampant today.

LA is found in virtually every processed food, including fast foods, restaurant foods and even salad dressings. Seemingly healthy food like chicken and pork are also be loaded with LA, unless they’ve been raised on special low-PUFA diets. For more information about this topic, I recommend reading my article, “Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet.”

I also advise avoiding blue light, particularly from digital devices, as it can trigger eye strain and contribute to the development of ARMD. As explained in one recent study:26

“High exposure to blue light triggers visual discomfort in the ocular surface of the cornea (digital eye strain), disruption of circadian rhythms, increased insulin resistance, increased affective disorders and even increased incidence of cancer pathologies.

Therefore, it is possible that the effects of overexposure to blue light on the retina by using these devices may contribute to a higher incidence of pathological changes in the retina, such as AMD.”

Sensory Impairments Are Just One Risk Factor

The bottom line is that aging is not tantamount to developing dementia. There are ways to protect your cognitive health and keep your mind sharp even as you reach your golden years. I recommend making the necessary changes to your day-to-day habits, geared towards improving these modifiable risk factors. As mentioned by The Lancet:

“Overall, around 45% of cases of dementia are potentially preventable by addressing the 14 modifiable risk factors at different stages during the life course.”27

For example, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are two risk factors that can be immediately avoided. Physical inactivity can be addressed by implementing a regular exercise routine. Depression, also a risk factor, can be avoided through socialization and by implementing stress-busting techniques, such as meditation and mindfulness, and by doing the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Lastly, make sure to consume a balanced diet composed of high-quality, whole foods, and avoid processed foods, seed oils and junk foods that contribute to diseases like diabetes and obesity.

“Healthy lifestyles that involve regular exercise, not smoking, cognitive activity in midlife (including outside formal education) and avoiding excess alcohol can not only lower dementia risk but may also push back dementia onset,” Livingston said.

“So, if people do develop dementia, they are likely to live less years with it. This has huge quality of life implications for individuals as well as cost-saving benefits for societies.”28

Mushrooms have long been renowned not just for the impressive benefits they offer, but also for the interesting flavors and textures they add to your meals. You may be well-acquainted with common varieties like Crimini, Portobello and shiitake, but have you ever tried exotic ones, like lion’s mane?

Lion’s mane mushroom has been making headlines recently, with some even calling it the “next superfood”1 due to its wholesome health advantages. You’ll be pleased to know that beyond its quirky, pompom-like appearance, it can offer an array of benefits, particularly for your nerves, brain health and more.

Basic Facts About Lion’s Mane

Most commonly found in East Asia, lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus) stands out from other mushroom species because it doesn’t have a cap, gills and a stem — instead, it’s big, shaggy and rather bizarre-looking, with long, white dangling strands that look like a lion’s mane, hence its name. Its main body is thick and compact, but slightly spongy. You’ll often see it growing on the trunks of dead hardwood trees.2,3,4

Also called bearded tooth mushroom,5 lion’s mane earned the distinction “the smart mushroom” for its potential benefits for your brain.6 However, its benefits go beyond that. In a Yahoo! News article,7 nutritional health coach Georgi Grogan comments:

“There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest it [lion’s mane] can help to reduce anxiety [and] depression, and also boost the digestive tract with its antibiotic and antiaging properties.”

The benefits of lion’s mane have been recognized for centuries, particularly in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, where it was used to help ease gastrointestinal disorders and spleen problems, treat liver and kidney diseases, and regulate heart health. Meanwhile, the indigenous populations in North America used lion’s mane as a preventive measure against bleeding.8

The Neuroprotective Effects of Lion’s Mane

Recently, lion’s mane has been recognized for its potential benefits to your nervous system and brain health, with several studies highlighting its neurocognitive, neuroprotective and neurotrophic properties. Lion’s mane stimulates nerve growth factor (NGF) production — this protein helps promote the growth and survival of your neurons.9 Having optimal neural connections improves your cognitive functions, including memory and concentration.

In one review published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews,10 researchers investigated the role of mushrooms on neurocognition and mood. They found that elderly patients who are dealing with mild cognitive impairment experienced improvements in cognitive function after taking a lion’s mane mushroom supplement for several weeks.

Along with the cognitive benefits, there were also indications of improved kidney function, such as “changes in levels of circulating electrolytes (Na and K), and a reduction in creatinine” among the patients.11 The researchers noted that lion’s mane was the only mushroom that resulted in these cognitive and mood benefits; however, these effects were only seen in older age groups, at high doses and long durations.12

A separate analysis published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences highlighted the neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects of lion’s mane supplementation, noting that it has “promising potential as an excellent neuroprotective agent, capable of stimulating nerve growth factor release, regulating inflammatory processes, reducing oxidative stress, and safeguarding nerve cells from apoptosis.”13

The authors note that the beneficial compounds in lion’s mane, mainly terpenoids and polyketides like erinacines and hericenones, were responsible for these effects, as they have “antioxidative, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and hypolipidemic properties.”14

Researchers Identify Lion’s Mane’s Brain-Boosting Mechanism of Action

In 2023, researchers from the University of Queensland identified the active compound that’s responsible for lion’s mane’s effect on nerve growth and memory.15 According to Frederic Meunier, one of the study authors:16

“Laboratory tests measured the neurotrophic effects of compounds isolated from Hericium erinaceus on cultured brain cells, and surprisingly we found that the active compounds promote neuron projections, extending and connecting to other neurons.

Using super-resolution microscopy, we found the mushroom extract and its active components largely increase the size of growth cones, which are particularly important for brain cells to sense their environment and establish new connections with other neurons in the brain.”

They found that the compound hericene A acts as a potent memory enhancer by promoting neuritogenesis (formation of neurites, tiny projections that extend from the cell body of a neuron) both in vitro and in vivo, and even in very low concentrations. The researchers said:17

“To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to identify a pro-BDNF signaling-enhancing activity for H. erinaceus and to identify hericene A as an active component for this neurotrophic function in vitro and in vivo.

[W]e suggest that the administration of hericene A from H. erinaceus may be useful to ameliorate brain function and disorder-related pathologies in in vivo neurodegenerative disease models. Although further studies are required to test this hypothesis, our report represents the first step on exploring the potential nootrophic benefits from hericene A compounds isolated from the mushroom H. erinaceus.”

In a report published on ScienceDaily, Ramon Martinez-Marmol, a coauthor of the study, highlights the importance of this discovery, saying it hold potential in “applications that could treat and protect against neurodegenerative cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”18

Ergothioneine — Another Longevity Powerhouse in Lion’s Mane

A sulfur-containing amino acid found in mushrooms, ergothioneine is another standout nutrient that not only promotes brain health but overall longevity, because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic and cytoprotectant properties.

Ergothioneine helps reduce cellular damage by eliminating harmful free radicals — its antioxidant properties are actually similar to that of glutathione.19 What’s more, it accumulates in tissues and organs after ingestion, helping minimize and prevent oxidative damage in those tissues over a long period of time.20

As for its benefits for cognitive health, one study published in the Free Radical Biology and Medicine says that having low levels of ergothioneine in the body can increase the risk of neurodegenerative disorders, including dementia, cognitive impairment and Parkinson’s disease. It can also lead to other age-related diseases like cardiovascular disease and eye disease. According to the authors:21

“ET [ergothioneine] is likely to be neuroprotective by a range of mechanisms in vivo. Since complex multifactorial mechanisms contribute to human neurodegenerative and other age-related diseases, this ability to act by several cytoprotective mechanisms can be expected to enhance the efficacy of ET in ameliorating the risk of these diseases.”

According to one study, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms had the highest ergothioneine levels among seven mushroom varieties that were tested,22 so adding these into your meals is one of the best ways to boost your levels of this longevity nutrient. If you want to learn more about ergothioneine, read my article, “This Mushroom Compound Is a Longevity Powerhouse.”

The Benefits of Lion’s Mane Go Beyond Brain Health

Lion’s mane may also benefit your gut health, as it was found to be a potent prebiotic to help your good gut bacteria thrive. According to Grogan:

“Due to their beta-glucan polysaccharide component, lion’s mane mushrooms are considered a ‘functional food’ that can act as a prebiotic. Put simply, they may help your gut flora (and good bacteria) to flourish while potentially limiting the growth of bad bacteria like H. pylori.”

Helicobacter pylori is a common type of bacteria found in your stomach. It attacks your stomach lining, leading to inflammation and damaging the tissues and your duodenum, the first section of your small intestine. H. pylori can also lead to the formation of peptic ulcers, which are painful sores that form on the upper part of your digestive tract.23

According to a review published in the Journal of Applied and Natural Science,24 animal subjects that were given an aqueous lion’s mane extract had more free mucus in their GI tract, meaning they had better gastroprotection. The mucus acts as a shield that protects the lining from damaging substances, including H. pylori.

But lion’s mane has more to offer beyond your brain and gut — It’s also been associated with helping improve other areas of health. A 2024 review highlighted some of the body-wide effects of lion’s mane, such as:25

Easing depression and anxiety — In one animal study,26 test subjects that were exhibiting symptoms of depression were given lion’s mane orally every day. They found that the mushroom had a “therapeutic potential for treating depression.”

Boosting immune health — Lion’s mane offers bioactive compounds that may promote immunity. According to the researchers, “Mushroom-derived beta-glucans are well-known for their potent immunomodulatory properties, surpassing other types in terms of their ability to affect immune and inflammatory responses.”27

Promoting heart health — Mushrooms offer compounds that help inhibit lipid oxidation, demonstrating an antihyperlipidemic effect. They also contain L-ergothioneine, an amino acid with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, helping boost cardiovascular health.

Helping manage Type 2 diabetes — In one animal study,28 diabetic rats that were given lion’s mane extract had increased serum insulin and reduced glucose levels. It also helped improve the activity of free radical scavenging enzymes.

Reducing cancer risk — Erinacine, another bioactive compound found in lion’s mane, may have antitumor effects, potentially triggering cancer cell death, particularly among gastric cancer cells.

Where to Find Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

While lion’s mane mushrooms are mostly well-known in Asian countries, they grow in North America and Europe as well. In the U.S., you may see them thriving on dead or dying maple, oak or beech trees. According to the Mycelium Society, you can forage for lion’s mane in the late summer, fall and winter — it depends on your location:

“In the southeast, lion’s mane is foraged in winter, while in the northeast, it is found in autumn. The season ends as soon as temperatures drop below 20 [degrees] F, and there are hard frosts.”29

However, don’t be so quick to start gathering lion’s mane — there are areas where foraging mushrooms is prohibited. If it’s allowed in your area, make sure to bring an expert who can help you identify the mushrooms before you pick them. This is particularly important if you are by yourself. To help you identify, harvest and store lion’s mane, here are some pointers, according to an article in CNET:30

“You’ll know it’s ripe by feeling the mushroom. If it’s spongy and soft, you’re good to go. Take a knife to remove the mushroom while leaving the roots. When you return home, cook the mushrooms immediately or store them in a paper bag in your fridge for up to three days,”

But how does this mushroom fare in terms of flavor? Apparently, lion’s mane has a “hearty and satiating” taste; Pamela Smith, RDN, a registered dietitian and the founder of Shaping America’s Plate, describes its sweet flavor to be similar to that of shellfish like scallops, lobster meat or crabmeat.31 When grated, it looks similar to lump crab meat.

Lion’s mane is spongy, which is why it’s so great at soaking up flavors. Simply sauté it in a bit of butter, salt and pepper for an easy side dish. You can also use it to make crab cakes or fish stew. It also works as a replacement for shredded chicken meat, like in pot pies, casseroles or even pasta dishes.

If your area does not allow foraging for mushrooms, you can try checking specialty stores to see if they stock this type. You can also buy lion’s mane in supplement form, if you’re after the benefits.

Mushrooms Are a Superfood, so Add Them to Your Repertoire

Remember that lion’s mane is just one variety that can offer superb benefits. In fact, mushrooms in general are considered superfoods because of their impressive nutrient profile. According to Smith, they are a potent source of B vitamins like biotin and niacin, glutathione and other antioxidants that protect against chronic diseases.32

I highly recommend adding mushrooms to your nutritional plan as they are an excellent addition to nearly any meal. However, it is crucial to choose organically grown mushrooms as fungi easily absorb air and soil contaminants. Growing your own is also an excellent and far safer option than foraging for wild mushrooms.

Aside from lion’s mane, other mushrooms that can offer health-boosting advantages include shiitake, pine mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, porcinis, king boletes, chanterelles and enokitake.33 Each of these have a distinct flavor profile, making them a versatile addition to various dishes — try a few and have fun cooking them in your kitchen!

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 23, 2017.

People think of time as moving along a fixed linear pathway, but in reality, time, including how fast or slow it moves, is all a matter of perception. This is why watching a movie you love feels like it flies by, while to another person who finds the movie boring, it moves tediously slow.

Other peculiarities have also been observed, such as how time moves faster as you get older and it’s possible to lose track of time entirely if you’re engrossed in a task. Likewise, when French geologist Michele Siffre conducted an isolation experiment in the 1960s, it showed that our perception of time changes depending on our circumstances.

He lived in a dark cave, alone, for two months, but when his team came to get him, he thought he’d only stayed for 35 days.1 Further, when he counted off an estimation of 120 seconds while living in the cave (via a phone that only worked one way), he counted for a full five minutes.2

In an interview with Cabinet magazine, Siffre said, “I psychologically experienced five real minutes as though they were two … There was a very large perturbation in my sense of time … My psychological time had compressed by a factor of two.”3

‘Time Doesn’t Exist Outside of Our Own Experience of It’

It’s interesting to note that when Siffre was asked what he thought caused the dramatic disconnect between actual time and his perceived psychological time, he said:4

“That’s a big question that I’ve been investigating for 40 years. I believe that when you are surrounded by night — the cave was completely dark, with just a light bulb — your memory does not capture the time. You forget.”

In some ways, what he experienced is similar to what happens when you’re immersed in an activity you love and suddenly realize you lost track of time. In The Atlantic, senior editor James Hamblin, M.D., wrote:5

“We conceptualize time through metaphors that project it along a straight line — before and after, long and short, earlier and later — as a function of how our perceptions relate to other perceptions. In the same way, the accuracy of any given clock is only relative to other clocks. Because time doesn’t clearly exist outside of our own experience of it, there are ways to manipulate that experience.”

He used Siffre’s experience with time after sensory deprivation as one example, as well as the hallucinogenic drug peyote, which is known to cause changes in sense of time, such as time passing more slowly, as another. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness also changes your perception of time.

“I can’t generally advise spending years on peyote or full-time isolation in a cave,” he noted. “The most practical examples of manipulating time perception come from the common observation that the more we think about time, the slower it goes.” Hamblin wrote:6

“In his treatise, The Principles of Psychology, William James wrote, ‘A day full of excitement, with no pause, is said to pass ‘ere we know it.’ On the contrary, a day full of waiting, of unsatisfied desire for change, will seem a small eternity.'”

Depression Slows Down Time, ‘Flow’ Makes You Lose Track of It

Alan Burdick, author of “Why Time Flies,” revealed that when you’re busy, you tend to sense time as going faster than when you’re bored. Similarly, a study of more than 800 people revealed people with depression reported a slower subjective experience of time.7

As for why depressed people feels time is dragging, it’s due to a slowing down of the internal clock or because they have difficulty being in the present moment or entering a state of consciousness known as “flow.”8

Flow, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the secret to happiness and occurs when you are completely absorbed in an activity (often one that involves creativity).9 When you’re immersed in flow, your sense of time becomes distorted because nearly all of your brain’s available inputs are devoted to the activity at hand, Csikszentmihalyi states.

If you’re depressed and unable to fully give your attention to the present moment, and as a result find time is agonizingly slow, mindfulness-based therapies are very helpful, particularly in cases of a depressed perception of time.10 Interestingly, mindfulness also slows down your perception of time while helping you to appreciate your surroundings.

How Busy You Are Alters Your Perception of Time

If you’re too busy, flying through your daily routines on autopilot mode, you will feel like your day is over in the blink of an eye.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Ph.D., adjunct professor at Stanford University, explained that your mental engagement changes your perception of time, and when you’re engaged in mundane activities your brain isn’t taking in much new information. As a result, time passes quickly.11 One of the areas of the brain responsible for emotion and memory is the amygdala.

The more detailed the memory the longer the moment appears to last. This is one of the reasons why it feels like forever when you’re stuck in traffic, but your memory of the event will be that it passed quickly, as you didn’t lay down any new memory.

This is where mindfulness comes in, as staying in the moment slows down the passage of time. Steven Meyers, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago, told The Huffington Post:12

“Mindfulness allows people to appreciate their surroundings and leads to the feeling that time is passing more slowly. Paying attention to events that are pleasant or interesting certainly enhances our mood and allows us to savor positive experiences.”

Mindfulness Slows Down Time

Practicing “mindfulness” means you’re actively paying attention to the moment you’re in right now. Rather than letting your mind wander, when you’re mindful, you’re living in the moment and letting distracting thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional implications.

Add mindfulness to virtually any aspect of your day simply by paying attention to the sensations you are experiencing in the present moment. Techniques used to become more mindful include:13

Paying focused attention to an aspect of sensory experience, such as the sound of your own breathing

Distinguishing between simple thoughts and those that are elaborated with emotion (such as “I have a test tomorrow” versus “What if I fail my test tomorrow and flunk my entire class?”)

Reframing emotional thoughts as simply “mental projections” to let your mind rest

Meyers added in The Huffington Post:14

“Time slips by because we are blindly going through the routine of our day … There are a range of remedies for this situation. Some people feel a sense of accomplishment if they set personal goals for themselves and work towards them in a purposeful way. Others need to be on the lookout for certain events — like appreciating a kind behavior from another person — to punctuate time passing.”

Staying Busy Benefits Your Brain

Keeping a packed schedule makes it feel like your days fly by, particularly if you don’t make it a point to be mindful, but doing so offers significant benefits to your brain. Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that the saying “the busier the better” is true, at least as far as cognition is concerned.15

Greater busyness was associated with better cognition, particularly for episodic memory. It didn’t matter if the study participant was 50 or 89 years old, having a busier schedule was linked to improved memory and better brain processing, reasoning and vocabulary.

The researchers pointed out that busy people have increased opportunities for new learning, which has been shown to promote the retention of new neurons in the brain’s hippocampus. In addition, busyness promotes the development of neural scaffolding and consequently facilitates cognition, according to the researchers, while promoting the development of brain reserves and the use of more efficient cognitive processing.16

There are downsides to being overly busy, of course, like chronic stress and burnout. Along those lines, healthy eating is often one of the first things to suffer when life gets busy, so it’s important to stick to the basics in this regard — focus on filling your plate with real, unprocessed foods, preferably organic and locally grown, and avoid resorting to convenience and fast foods, energy drinks or excessive amounts of caffeine to keep going.

However, a busy lifestyle is also a positive one if you stay mindful and engage in activities that lead to flow. The more engaged you are, the more you will feel as though you’re living your life beyond the constraints of time instead of by them.