I think this phenomenon can be explained by understanding our frame of reference with respect to time when we’re high.

In normal time (NT), time registers fairly linearly from our perspective. Generally, each second feels about as long as the next and we’re able to measure our mood, emotions, experiences and how long they go on for with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

In high time (HT), time does not flow linearly from our perspective. One second could be as long as the next, or it could be slower. There’s no really way to tell. Even if you deliberately set a timer like I often do, the numbers on the dial don’t really tell the whole story.

And I think this is because you can perceive so much more while high. Those cymbals you don’t hear in when in NT. The way the clouds move in the painting that you don’t notice in NT. The micro expressions on your friend’s faces as you talk that you don’t notice in NT.

You start to perceive all these extra things. Things that have always been there but time forgot to highlight to you, because you were in the wrong sort of time.

So when you’re in the correct time, the HT, I think you start to measure time not in how many seconds flow from one to the next, but by how much you experience from one moment to the next.

Then when you start to think of the moments passing and the minutes passing too, you realise that you actually packed more moments into those minutes than you would have in NT – and if you had to normalise those HT moments with NT moments to make the moments last the same amount of time, what actually ends up happening is that the seconds and minutes end up being longer when translated into a linear time space.

I hope this makes sense, if not, I’ll try and draw it.

Normally I’m in a weird place when time feels slower when I become aware of it, but it speeds up too much when I’m doing something which means I’m not paying attention to the time anymore.

There are quite a few 20 mph roads near me where the only incentive to slow down is to avoid being caught be a speed camera.

The roads are wide and straight for long stretches, and going at the 20 mph limit just means you become an obstruction for the rest of traffic, even buses and lorries.

The design of the road and posted speed limits are sending mixed messages.