Keeping up with time

[manic_panic03]

I am wondering if anyone with Bipolar Disorder (while in manic or hypomanic episode) has lost track of time.... specifically thinking more time has passed than what really has.  I was working away tonight...got a lot done, then looked at the clock and it was only about 30 mins later.  Or you feel like it should be later in the day/evening but its not?

[CalvinSmith]

I'm the same way, sit me in front of a wall and time passes fast as heck.. Keep me busy, the day will drag and life will suck. I don't think people with relatively balanced moods have this gift... The gift to immensely speed up our own perception of time due to mania or hypo.. But be gruesomely dragged down by the depressive state where, time feels like a stagnant pool, going nowhere, not persperating... Just entirely slowed down, time is so slow it is probably one of the main contributions to depression.  if not contributions, observations.. And no not slow motion, but you look at the clock and it feels like 2 hours but really has only been 15 minutes...  

[rmevans]

My experiences (while busy) have been mostly the opposite.  I can get hyper-focused on work, personal research, or whatever, and it seems that it has only been minutes, but when I look at the clock it has been hours.  When I was in college I missed a lot of classes for that reason.  It is when I bored or doing something uninteresting that time seems to go really slow.  I think that is pretty normal for people across the board.  
As for getting a lot of stuff done in a small amount of time, I believe (not a pro)  that makes a lot of sense.  When I am hypomanic, everything seems easy to me.  So projects that would usually take me hours (or in college, things that took others hours) I could get done in say 1/2 hour.  I've never really thought about it, but I would say that other people in "study groups" surely noticed (and were annoyed by the fact) that I was often done with all my homework and off messing around when they felt they had just started.

[amberb777]

I have noticed stuff like that before..I also lose track of days, is that pretty normal with BP??

[moonpanda]

I know that studies have shown that the subjective experience of time is significantly affected in people with schizophrenia (and in people with other brain disorders, including Parkinson's, where time appears to be running too quickly), so it's not too far a stretch to say that bipolar mood states, mania and perhaps hypomania in particular, can induce a similar time perception dysfuntion.

But as other posters have said before, even healthy people experience this effect to one degree or another. However, the normal brain has a pretty good ability overall to sense time correctly in the end; without this, there is going to be a lot of confusion and disorientation.

[ILADVOCATE]

I have two opposite issues. The first which is part of standard rapid cycling is that time seems to "fly by me" ( I tend to use the exact phrase) as I try to catch up with things and focus and cannot concentrate. The second which may be neurological in origin but is also related to moods is where everything appears like it is moving at a faster rate than me and I cannot understand or perceive the concept of time to begin with. Both cannot sometimes overlap in how they occur and they are complex to separate as to cause but both impact on me. One solution I have is to make exact plans as to how things will occur and what how they will be addressed in an exact logical orderly manner. I always tended to be a person who planned ahead and arranged things as there were always some difficulties in that area. Its good of course to take time off and just relax and enjoy things but when it comes to essentials its best to plan them out when things are stable so you can then have direct steps as to what to do when they are not.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Yeah this experience of time seeming out of whack in speed is not limited to just bipolar disorder; I have it happen where if it is busy at work it seems like the time just DRAAAAAGS on (but this stresses me out immensely) and when I'm having fun it seems like it is flying by.  The latter is normal but it seems like for everyone else at work that time flies for them when it's busy.

[aadel]

When you're revved up (i.e. manic or hypomanic), your internal clock runs faster than the external clock.  Thus you feel that more time has passed.

This phenomenon is not limited to Bipolar.  Some people use it to manipulate their experience of time.

For example, a student taking a timed test will find it to his advantage to speed up his internal clock.  This appears to give him additional time to finish the test.

Conversely, if you have to sit through a boring sermon or lecture, you can dial down your internal clock, thereby making time fly.