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Psychoactive1984
PositiveCynicist

Registered: 02/06/05
Posts: 3,546
Loc: California, Monterey Coun...
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Time slows for people who stop smoking
#4064540 - 04/17/05 02:19 AM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3715
Time really does pass more slowly when you are gasping for cigarette, reveals a new study demonstrating that smokers who are deprived of cigarettes have an altered perception of time.
US researchers found that when regular smokers gave up their habit, their perception of passing time was stretched by 50 per cent.
They believe that this process is linked to underlying biological processes as well as psychological and behavioural ones.
"People [who abstain] are pretty irritable and they feel like time is going by more slowly than it really is," said Laura Cousino Klein, a medical psychologist at Pennsylvania State Univerisity, Pennsylvania, who led the study. "It's like when you're trying to drive to work and the red light seems like it's on forever."
She said the idea of time slowing was also linked to feelings of hostility and anger.
"The time perception impairment that we observed in the abstaining smokers may be part of the reason they also reported feeling more stressed and unable to focus or be attentive," she said.
Hormone changes Klein and colleagues asked 20 regular smokers and 22 non-smokers to estimate the duration of a 45-second time period in the lab.
Subjects were simply told: "In a moment, I?m going to say 'start' and then I will say 'stop'. When I say 'stop', please tell me how much time you think has gone by in seconds."
The two groups initially had similar abilities in accurately estimating the amount of time that had passed. But when tested after abstaining for a day, most of the smokers estimated a much longer time interval. On average, they estimated the interval to be about 50 per cent longer than 45 seconds.
Although the concept that smoking cigarettes can alter time has been around for decades, few studies have directly investigated the link between abused drugs and time perception. This is the first to look at before and after scenarios in this way, says Klein.
She said that that dramatic hormone changes associated with quitting smoking may have an effect on time perception. The hormones, cortisol and arginine vasopressin, are suggested to be involved in this process although "the literature is mixed" about the effects of smoking and quitting on these hormones, she says.
The team is currently studying how these hormone levels change with cigarette smoking and stress. They will also be studying the effects of longer periods of abstinence in smokers, and will include those actively trying to quit.
Klein told New Scientist that the findings "open the door to trying to understand what?s going on clinically with stopping smoking".
Journal reference: Psychopharmacology Bulletin
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Why I chain smoke... I need to stay in normal time.
-------------------- "Their is one overriding question that concerns us all: How can we get out of the fatal groove we are in, the one that is leading towards the brink?" Albert Szent-Gyorgyi "We may not be capable of eradicating the corruption of reason, but we must nevertheless counter it at every instance and with every means." Dan Agin "Politics is the best religion and politicians are the worst followers." -It's ok to trip as long as you don't fall. -Substance over Style. -Common sense is uncommon.
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fresh313
journeyman


Registered: 09/01/03
Posts: 2,537
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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nicotine up, dopamine up, time down nicotine down, dopamine down, time up
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fresh313
journeyman


Registered: 09/01/03
Posts: 2,537
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: Time slows for people who stop smoking [Re: fresh313]
#4064776 - 04/17/05 03:35 AM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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alsey
meet me in thedreamtimewater...

Registered: 02/17/05
Posts: 1,203
Last seen: 14 years, 10 months
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yeah dude, i quit smoking a few days ago and time goes so slowly!
-------------------- "Gently return to the simple physical sensation of the breath. Then do it again, and again, and again. Somewhere in this process, you will come face-to-face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking, gibbering madhouse on wheels." - ven. henepola gunaratana
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egghead1
Nakedly Open

Registered: 03/02/05
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Loc: The Womb of Love
Last seen: 18 years, 7 months
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Re: Time slows for people who stop smoking [Re: alsey]
#4065949 - 04/17/05 04:33 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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Time is constant, our awareness of it may differentieant depending on our presence. But time is consistantly constant.
-------------------- All you need is Love! Really thats it! Infinite Unconditional Love! Just develop that and all else will fall into place perfectly!
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Holydiver
Stranger



Registered: 03/19/01
Posts: 5,156
Loc: The midnight sea
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Re: Time slows for people who stop smoking [Re: egghead1]
#4065992 - 04/17/05 04:51 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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I quit a few months ago. Time is going as fast as it ever was!
-------------------- To find a place to live between the negatives and positives.
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Locus



Registered: 03/11/04
Posts: 6,112
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
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Our perception of time slows when things suck or when you're focusing on it.
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The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ~ Albert Einstein "Fear is the great barrier to human growth." ~ Dr. Robert Monroe ~~~*Dosis sola facit venenum*~~~ *Check my profile to listen to my music*
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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Time slows for people who stop smoking [Re: egghead1]
#4067026 - 04/17/05 11:10 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
egghead1 said: Time is constant, our awareness of it may differentieant depending on our presence. But time is consistantly constant.
Nope. Time is relative to motion. Time may seem constant, but it is not, because we are all travailing at roughly the same speed on the earth.
I don't want to sound like a dick, but i think even a layman should know this aspect of physics.
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relativexistance
"beads, bees!?!?beads ....BEADS!!!"


Registered: 01/08/04
Posts: 1,778
Last seen: 11 years, 8 months
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these are some good articles including the one posted by fresh313

i wonder if people that are impatient or get anxious easily have to some extent a different sense of time
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Sammy
Between the fold

Registered: 09/03/02
Posts: 1,031
Loc: you'll shoot yer eye out ...
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
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I believe it's just like the saying ... "A watched pot never boils". When you're actively waiting for something.. it seems to take a lot longer than if you were passively waiting.. say.. playing some nintendo while you're waiting.
I just quit 15 hours and 15 minutes ago!! Time did seem to go by slowly at first.. but that's because you're always thinking about one thing. Get your mind off of it.. and onto something else and it wont seem as bad. LoL! But when you're quitting.. time going by fast or slow is the smallest of your worries.... getting rid of the twitches, sweats and jitters is what sucks!
Sammy
-------------------- I believe in the Golden Rule ? The Man with the Gold . . . Rules. - Mr. T
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Psychoactive1984
PositiveCynicist

Registered: 02/06/05
Posts: 3,546
Loc: California, Monterey Coun...
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Re: Time slows for people who stop smoking [Re: Sammy]
#4070820 - 04/18/05 10:38 PM (18 years, 9 months ago) |
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... Well, I was bored enough to test out that old saying finally and, needless to say, it boiled.
I wouldn't use that saying to explain anything... though Good point though on the perception of passing time.
-------------------- "Their is one overriding question that concerns us all: How can we get out of the fatal groove we are in, the one that is leading towards the brink?" Albert Szent-Gyorgyi "We may not be capable of eradicating the corruption of reason, but we must nevertheless counter it at every instance and with every means." Dan Agin "Politics is the best religion and politicians are the worst followers." -It's ok to trip as long as you don't fall. -Substance over Style. -Common sense is uncommon.
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