Scientific Reasons Why January Feels So Long Lifestyle – 10 hours ago

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Maybe you are one of the people who is asking the reason why the first month of every year is so slow. Therefore, here is the explanation.

Researcher at the University of Cambridge, William Skylark, said that most people feel that January is very slow and long, which is influenced by several things, one of which is the perception of time.

Launching from New Statesman, studies say that each person has a different internal clock system speed and can be influenced by a number of factors. For example, holiday leave can make time go by so fast, while scary horror films can make time seem longer.

When referring to the phenomenon of the internal clock system, January may feel long because almost every individual returns to busy and “scary” activities after spending December full of fun moments during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

“Perhaps starting back to work after the Christmas holidays causes a lot of boredom, giving the impression that time slows down in January,” said doctoral student at University College London (UCL), Zhenguang Cai, who researches time perception, quoted on Wednesday (17/1/2024).

“That seems to be the reason why January feels so slow. Having fun seems to be the biggest predictor of whether you have a fast or slow time,” the explanation continued.

This phenomenon is in line with the dopamine clock hypothesis which states that higher dopamine levels are able to speed up the human body's internal clock. As a result, time seems to go by faster.

For your information, dopamine is a hormone whose levels can increase if a person feels happy. This hormone, which is also related to motivation and reward, functions to influence emotions, movement, sensations of pleasure, concentration and feeling pain.

According to experts, humans have a poor ability to judge how long something lasts. The more we think something lasts a long time, the more complaints and annoying things we experience. This could be one of the reasons why many people complain about how long January lasts.

Apart from that, in January humans are also said to be very aware of time. Because, this month people really don't have anything to look forward to, one of which is a red date or long weekend holiday.

In conclusion, the reason why January lasts so long is because humans are aware of how time passes, how humans value time, and how humans “reflect” their feelings.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(hsy/hsy)