Thursday 21 June 2012

Experiencing Time dilation, that's your body clock adjusting

In my days as a student I would experience certain time dilation's and wouldn't think anything of it. After traveling into the future, faster then I can remember I had the symptoms of dry mouth huge migraines and sensitivity to light. All can be explained by the fact I was drinking a special but cheap time travel juice called alcohol. Special alcohol mix would allow me to de-focus on exams essays and cheap almost unhygienic living standards. That was a special time in my life as I remember it, but I guess at the time of those crazy manic days of  intense education I might not have positive happy feelings.
My post student days I would consider why does time go fast in one situation and not another?. Was it the alcohol or the fact I wasn't aware of the time?.


My Idea of time perception can be distorted with the use of drugs and alcohol, also engaging in some interesting activity usually helps to make the time go flying by. Trying to figure out the concept of time would be a hard concept to say in a short article. As I see its a series of events that is happening, while we as humans record or experience the flow of time sequentially.
From there my idea that time can move slowly or fast can perceptionally be altered. I know there is a branch of science that says time can slow down in a large gravity well or when approaching the speed of light. But considering its a dark Thursday night and I am thinking of a late night snack rather then explaining what so many documentaries and other blogs about the theory of relativity. I will stick to normal human time on earth.

This means time is constant and the only way perception of time can be altered is through brain chemistry or someones attention span. The basic idea of perception of time is through the idea of following a cycle of 24 hours. The Circadian clock or rhythm is the biochemical mechanism that coordinate with the day night cycle
Bi-polar disorder and some sleep disorders are associated with irregular circadian rhythm, which may be corrected positively with lithium. The clock genes are cogs in the circadian rhythm that make up the auto regulatory feedback loop. The clock gene carry out genetic instructions to produce proteins, these same oscillating biochemical signals control various functions including sleep rest and when we are awake.
Circadian rhythms also controls body temperature heart activity hormone secretion, blood pressure, oxygen consumption metabolism and many other functions.

Neuroscientist Dr David Eagleman, experimented on a student volunteers, by dropping them at a height that would induce the slow perception of time change by free falling. Beside making a new machine for adrenaline junkies, Dr Eagleman wanted to find if time was slowed down to the falling observer. His premise was to have a wrist display oscillating a number too fast for the brain to see. While falling the observer would then perceive time slower would in theory see the display as their time is altered. His findings was that there was no change and the falling observer could not see the display despite feeling time had slowed down for them.


 

There have been many experiments with time perception some using hypnosis to alter time, others using test subject to see the perception of time is the same for people young and old . One cave expert Michel Siffre. experience time differences when he entered a cave for 59 days, thinking it was 34 days.

Time perception is changeable to any situation, reading up on the circadian clock or the body's own clock system. I found it can be adjusted according to the rhythm of the day, by way of resetting itself using light.
The attention span can be focused in such away that time seems to slow down during times of danger or hypnosis or emotional events. Time does fly when you having fun and does slow if its boring. Even my alcohol idea seems to fit with this theory. Though if I was trying to travel to the future I wouldn't drink hard liquor to see a world beyond my own life time. Instead enjoy your biological clock and keep it running at a average speed. What ever you do if its fun, scary or boring you body clock will be re-adjusting automatically, and the strange time dilation seems to be the knock on effect of that.


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