How Does the Body Mold Our Sense of Time?

Irena Arslanova says time is constructed in the brain, but the body molds it. A sense of time is part of how the brain makes predictions, and the ultimate purpose of the brain is to make predictions that keep a person safe.

A vacation, a hobby, or a good book can bring a state of flow where time disappears. Doing a lot while busy can make the hours slip away. Hours stuck at the airport can feel as if time is barely moving. The brain reads signals from the heart, the gut, and the immune system, a process called interoception, to know how the body is doing and to predict what it will need: how long until hunger makes it impossible to function, and whether a few more hours are possible before sleep.