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Why Time Feels Different in Dreams
Episode 67 explores why dreams can seem to last far longer—or sometimes much shorter—than the actual time spent asleep. Our sense of time is not produced by a perfect internal clock. Instead, it is shaped by attention, memory, emotion, bodily signals, and changes in our surroundings. During dreams, many of these external anchors disappear, allowing the brain to construct time much more freely.
Research involving lucid dreamers suggests that basic timing during dreams can remain surprisingly close to waking time, especially for simple tasks such as counting. However, dreams often create the…
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