Experiencing time loss

Some anomalous phenomena involve the experience of time loss. So, I was intrigued recently to experience a time loss myself. It was a perfectly normal day and I was doing routine domestic activities, things I do all the time. So, I was shocked to suddenly find I’d apparently lost one and a half hours for no obvious reason I could think of. I was standing up for the entire period when time ‘vanished’ so it is highly unlikely I dozed off.

I am generally quite good at judging the time. I never wear a watch but can usually tell the time to within quarter of an hour. Indeed, I tested that today by not looking at a clock for around three hours and then guessing the time. I was just 10 minutes out. I used to know someone who could consistently do considerably better than that. Interestingly, I don’t do any mental arithmetic. I just guess a time and it is usually close, or even spot on.

I think not wearing a watch may actually help with judging time. I think it may have caused me to unconsciously note the time my regular tasks take. I always look at clocks when I pass them so I can mentally add in any time for regular tasks to judge the current time. I can even adjust for when a task clearly takes longer or shorter than it normally would. So I was stunned to discover I’d lost 90 minutes! I still can’t account for it even now.

When people report missing time in an anomalous experience, it is usually when something unfamiliar happens. This would fit with the idea of judging time by unconsciously adding up events of known duration. With an unfamiliar event that mental calculation is clearly likely to go wrong hence producing an apparent time loss. Thus such a time loss may not necessarily be a sign that anything paranormal has occurred. And my own example also shows that sometimes judging time simply goes haywire for whatever reason.