Your Heartbeat Might Define The Way You Experience Time Go By

How we feel in the moment might be dictated by the speed of our heartbeat, suggests new research.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | August 3, 2023

A new study published in Psychophysiology suggests that the length of our heartbeat affects our perception of time more than previously thought.

Much of the prior work on how we perceive time centered on how our behaviors and emotions can make time appear to pass "faster" or "slower."

For instance, a 2022 review published in Frontiers in Psychology studied data from various papers to understand how emotions and motivation influence how we perceive time. The review found that when we are approaching some sort of outcome — such as a goal, reward or punishment — time seems to fly by, regardless of whether we feel good or bad about the outcome. On the other hand, when we avoid something that brings about negative emotions, such as a threat or a punishment, time seems to drag on.

To put this into perspective, think about the last time you were waiting on a vacation. As the date of your departure approached, you may have felt excited and eager to go, and time may have seemed to race past you. This could explain the last-minute rush many of us experience as we near the start time of an event or activity. In contrast, when you make a conscious effort to avoid something, like a confrontation, time may have seemed to inch by as you tried to avoid thinking about it.

While such studies explain how we remember time that has already passed, it doesn't give us an understanding of what it means to experience time in the present. It also doesn't explain how our perception of time is a complex interplay of psychology and physiology.

In the recent study, conducted at Cornell University, the researchers had one core question:

Does The Variability In Our Heartbeats Explain Differences In Time Perception?

Even the most accurate human heartbeat will vary in length. Each consecutive heartbeat will be slightly longer or shorter compared to the one prior. What might this mean for humans' instinctual feel for time?

To answer this question, the researchers conducted an electrocardiogram-based experiment on 45 participants aged between 18 to 21. The electrocardiogram accurately measured the length of each heartbeat and also took into account the spaces between them. The machine was also connected to a computer that would play a short beep (lasting about 80 to 188 milliseconds) each time a participant's heart beat. Each participant was then asked how long each beep felt and their responses and heartbeat lengths were analyzed.

The results? The study found that when the participants had a shorter heartbeat, they thought the beep lasted longer than it really did. But when they had a long heartbeat, they thought the beep sound was shorter than it really was. The researchers term this phenomenon "temporal wrinkles."

The study also explored the role the brain played in regulating the heartbeats of the participants. The data showed that once a participant heard a beep, their brains had to "reorient" to attending to the sound. This response influenced their heartbeat, and thus their perception of time as well.

These findings shed light on how our perception of time is likely always fluctuating and is at least in part tied to the functioning of our heart. This knowledge may prove useful as we learn how to combine physiology and psychology to better manage mental health conditions such as depression and ADHD, which have been known to change how people perceive time.