Every year, it’s always the same story: in common perception, January it seems to never end. Yet it has 31 days, just like other months of the year… so how is it possible that many people perceive it as a month “infinite”? The main reason is the fact that January is mostly a month of work, which comes right after a month full of partiesand this affects ours perception of time.
If the first week of January is still perceived as part of December due to the New Year’s Eve celebration and the Epiphany, the rest of the month seems to pass slowly precisely because we are coming out of days full of events, gifts and meetings, which stimulated the production of dopaminethe neurotransmitter associated with motivation that regulates sensations of pleasure. High levels of dopamine speed up our internal clock, and it seems to us that time passes faster (we are occupied by many different stimuli). Once those hectic days are over, we return to routine and dopamine drops, and with it the perception of the length of time rises. In this regard, there are studies on mice, which have shown that this is largely true, but the topic still needs to be explored further.
Also, resume a work after the holidays it can ferry us into a substantial one state of boredomwhich leads us to perceive the month as much longer than it really is, and the end of the fun and the onset of duty is one of the decisive factors on our perception of time.
It should also be remembered that after the holidays many people sleep worse, go to bed later and circadian rhythms are thrown out of whackmaking everything slower: both the mind and the body are more tired, and the hours can be perceived as “heavier”.
Then there is one last factor that contributes to the feeling that January never ends: the days are starting to get longerbut they do it gradually. The result is a strange effect: outside It already seems late, but in reality it isn’t yet. Precisely this discrepancy between light and time can make time perceive as slower and more dilated.
