How Music Distorts Your Sense of Time
Did you know that your favourite song can literally feel shorter or longer depending on your mood even though the duration never changes? When you’re happy or excited, your brain processes music faster; when you’re sad or tired, the same song feels longer.
This is because when you listen to music, your brain doesn’t use a clock to measure time. Instead, it relies on attention, emotion, and expectation. This happens because when you’re excited or deeply engaged by a song, your brain releases dopamine which in turn speeds up neural processing, so that your brain almost ignores the concept of time hereby making the song feel shorter. Whereas, the song feels longer when you’re sad, bored, or anxious, because your brain monitors time more closely.
Most times, familiar songs feel shorter because your brain predicts what comes next while unfamiliar music feels longer because your brain works harder to process it.
It has also been proven that songs with strong rhythm & repeating hooks feel shorter than songs with slow tempos, long intros and irregular structures.
This is why workouts feel faster with music and long drives feel shorter with road jams.