A year is 20% of a five-year-old's life but only 2% of a 50-year-old's — a simple mathematical fact that may help explain why years seem to accelerate as we age. Linguist Joanna Szadura argues that alongside changes in the aging brain, we may experience time on an increasingly compressed, nonlinear scale.

A year is 20% of a five-year-old's life but only 2% of a 50-year-old's — a simple mathematical fact that may help explain why years seem to accelerate as we age. Linguist Joanna Szadura argues that alongside changes in the aging brain, we may experience time on an increasingly compressed, nonlinear scale.

When I was a child, the distance between one birthday and the next felt enormous. Now entire seasons seem capable of slipping past while I am still mentally filing the previous one. The calendar has not become more efficient, but it can certainly feel that way. I am a writer, not a clinician. This is reporting and interpretation, not medical advice. There is a wonderfully simple explanation for the feeling. One year is a fifth of everything a fi…