The participants in a study conducted by a professor from a French university reported that, according to them, the time passed more quickly, before the containment.
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June 20, 2020 10: 30
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Time passes more slowly in containment?
Jean-Benoit Legault
The canadian Press
MONTREAL — The time passes more slowly in containment?
At least that is the impression that had some 4400 French subjects who have cooperated in an investigation of professor Sylvie Droit-Volet, of the University of Clermont Auvergne.
The participants, who accounted for almost 80 % of women, reported that, according to them, the time passed more quickly, before the containment. The feeling of slowness persisted, regardless of whether one speaks of the term perceived for a day or a week, even if time seemed to pass more quickly when we were talking about a longer period of time.
“We really feel that the time lags for the containment, that there is a real downturn relative to the time that there was before the containment”, summarised professor the Right-Pane, reached in France.
It goes without saying, in fact, that the time passes more or less rapidly in confinement as before. Each minute lasts a minute and every hour lasts an hour.
We are talking about the perception people have of the passage of time, she reported Right-Pane, a perception that can be influenced by several factors.
“One of the predictors, it is boredom, she said. The boredom is going to be partly explained by the lack of activities, but it will also be explained by emotions, by the fact that people feel less happy.”
A feeling well known
Almost all will be familiar with the sensation of a day that seems never-ending so we really do not know how to occupy our ten fingers.
“The largest association reported (in the survey) is that the people who are bored have the impression that time passes very slowly, which is not surprising in itself,” commented dr. Diane Boivin, an expert in circadian rhythms at the douglas Institute Douglas mental health.
“The researchers report that when people are bored, they have the impression that time passes more slowly. It shows that there is a psychological aspect that is involved in the evaluation individuals make of the temporal organization of their day.”
The speed with which the containment is arrived has not given the people the chance to prepare and adapt, believes Ms. Right-Pane.
Unlike a pension that we’re seeing coming and planning, the containment has been “brutal”, depriving a large part of the population of activities, which governed largely his time.
“Overnight they came to the house with little activity, she said. Until now it was the working conditions that defined their activity, as if their activity was determined by the outside. And all of a sudden, they find themselves to be the masters of their time. (…) People have had to reorganize, think about how to fill in again this time.”
This lack of activity has led to sleep disorders for some when their regular schedule has been completely turned upside-down, “and at the same time, when we have slept badly, we are not happy, you are not well and we are going to express it,” added Ms. Right-Pane.
Sadness
Also, remember dr. Boivin, “a literature shows that this experience of temporal perception is affected by the psychological state of individuals”.
“It is sure that the decrease of the activities can have impacts on mental health, the level of anxiety and the level of boredom that people feel, she added. The study shows that it affects the way in which they say they live their experience of the passage of time.”
It is difficult to determine if the trouble is a source of sadness, or if rather, it is the sadness that is the source of boredom. One thing is for certain, people sad have the impression that time passes more slowly, which could have long-term impact on their mental health.
“As a result, one can read in the study of Ms. Right-Pane, an experience of boredom during confinement, and a judgment that the time passes more slowly have accentuated the sadness and could lead to a depression that is pathological.”
Now remains to know whether these psychological disorders will resolve with the end of the confinement or if they are there for good. Ms. Right-Pane intends to conduct further surveys in the three and six months for the check.
“Whatever it is, it must be careful because there are a lot of people who are going to have trouble, she warned. And in addition, we can see that there are people who are more vulnerable than others to cope with these situations, persons who suffer from isolation, individuals who were already depressed, the people who suffer from impulsivity…”
Everything is connected
Ms. Right-Pane and his colleagues were surprised to find that the living space available to their participants did not influence the way in which they lived the containment.
“This is not the space that is important, it is what we will do to the inside of this space here, she said. The more people there are, the more there is of activity, in any way, unless there is a sense of isolation and the better one is going to live the containment. This is completely contrary to all the clichés that we had, saying that it is very difficult to live containment when one is many, and in a small living space. There are people in a beautiful house with a beautiful garden who are bored during the confinement.”
Ultimately, she says, everything is connected: the boredom, the sadness, the lack of activity, sleep disorders, and the feeling that time stands still.
It is then necessary to understand that one often refers to the passage of time to describe the underlying emotions.
“It is for this reason that in the end when it says ‘the sense of the passage of time’, this is not the time, launched Ms. Right-Pane in the conclusion. We use this term because it is a word which is extremely familiar. We perceive, we perceive all of our life through time. But this is not because one uses the word that we are familiar with the passage of time that it is the passage of time. In reality, this term reflects something else, our emotional state, our boredom, our difficulties, but this is not the time.”
