Tachysensia: the strange phenomenon of accelerated time

Tachysensia is a little-known phenomenon. However, the curious thing is that every time he is talked about, many people tend to identify with his characteristics. It is a state in which the person has the sudden feeling that everything is speeding up.

You can be walking or checking email on your cell phone or computer and almost, Without knowing how, you notice that everything is going faster than normal. Daze, dislocation, dizziness… Currently, it is still not clear why this situation may appear, but it is suspected that the triggers may be neurological.

Often, tachysensia is usually associated with Alice in Wonderland syndrome. This last condition defines a not very common clinical picture in which brief episodes appear in which the images are distorted, appear larger, more distant, etc.

Let’s learn a little more about this condition.

What is tachysensia?

It’s not a pleasant feeling. Those who have suffered an episode of tachysensia first perceive something unusual that scares and contradicts them.. Being walking and feeling like everything is going much faster. Cross your legs and have the sensation that this same movement is repeated not once, but several times. A hallucination perhaps? It is more complex than it may seem.

There is a very interesting book titled The clock mirage of Joseph Mazur, a professor emeritus of mathematics. In this work he explains to us that cells have a temporal consciousness. The brain even has “an internal clock” that is governed based on circadian rhythms. Even more, Emotions such as fear slow down time and factors such as fever can speed it up..

There are biological factors that could therefore mediate this phenomenon. Thus, and although it is true that today we still find very little information about this phenomenon, there are many people who have experienced it. Tachysensia is, basically, an alteration in which one perceives how one’s own movements They accelerate and whose origin could be neurological.

What symptoms does it present?

People who suffer or have suffered from tachysensia at some point describe some common characteristics. Due to the little literature available, and which we will now analyze when trying to understand the causes, we know that it has been described for 50 years. Let’s now see what symptoms it usually presents:

Acceleration of between 1.5 and 3 times compared to the actual speed of movement

It doesn’t matter what activity we are doing. There are musicians who explain how, suddenly, they have the sensation of playing the guitar, piano or violin quickly when in reality they are not. Whoever is writing, for example, sees how his hand suddenly acquires an unusual speed.

The perception of movement is altered and advances in an unexpected way, disconcerting the person. That acceleration would be in the range of 1.5 or 3 points higher than the normal speed.

Duration between 5 and 10 minutes

Takinesis does not last exactly short. On average, these perceptual alterations last between 5 and 10 minutes, time during which people do not know what is happening. These phenomena can appear about 5 times in a year.

The tachysensia yehearing sounds or even voices during that trance

In some patients, Tachysensia also occurs with hearing sudden sounds or voices. We know that auditory hallucinations are a characteristic of certain mental disorders. Now, in some cases this sign is not only related to psychotic symptoms.

We know that these phenomena can appear in hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, that is, in that intermediate state between sleep and wakefulness. In addition, People with PTSD can experience this realityas a consequence of a state of extreme excitement and nervousness. Fever is also another cause.

What is the cause of this perception of acceleration?

Although, as we have pointed out, There is not much scientific documentation that specifically describes what tachysensia is., yes we can find this characteristic associated with certain conditions. That is, it would be the effect of some disease, neurological condition or specific peculiarity.

Migraines and tachysensia

Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia, Canada, describes a very particular variant of migraine in a study. We know of a case described in which a teenager with migraines suffered from the phenomenon of time acceleration.. This study is from 1990, however, it is not something isolated. This feeling of rushed movements has appeared in people who suffer from this same problem.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

Dr. Mario Shammas, from the University of Chicago, describes in very recent research a possible variety of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, in which all the characteristics of tachysensia arise.

This work explains how the analysis of a group of people with this variety showed perception of accelerated body movements and also auditory alterations. Now, it is not 100% clear that it could be due to the neurological alteration associated with Alice syndrome. Tachysensia sometimes appeared in people with migraine and high anxiety.

Increased body temperature

It was in the 1930s, when neuroscientist Hudson Hoagland discovered thatSome people who experience fever or a body temperature suffered alterations in the perception of time.

This could therefore be another hypothesis. One with which to suspect that, perhaps, fever accelerates the internal biological clock, the one that allows us to perceive the passage of time associated with movements. Sometimes, a high body temperature could cause this phenomenon.

However, and to conclude, what is certain is that we still do not know everything about tachysensia. It is a phenomenon that, beyond the shock, does not cause limiting alterations or serious illnesses. They are like small glitches in the brain, slight and unusual short circuits, which leave us in a strange dimension in which time passes altered.

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