Time slows for quitting smokers
Smokers trying to kick their habit perceive time passing more slowly, according to a US study.
This phenomenon, possibly sparked by the effects of nicotine withdrawal on the brain, may contribute to the stress and decline in concentration experienced by many abstaining from cigarettes, Dr Laura Cousino Klein and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University suggest.
The team asked 22 non-smokers, and 20 daily cigarette smokers, to estimate the duration of a 45 second period of time.
The smokers took the test twice, first after smoking as normal, and then again after abstaining from their habit for 24 hours, under observation.
After the first test both smokers and non-smokers guessed the length of time equally accurately, but the performance of non-smokers after abstinence was not so impressive.
All overestimated the duration of the time, revealing it had felt as long as a minute.
Writing in the journal Psychopharmacology Bulletin, the researchers argue: “That 24-hour cigarette smoking abstinence can alter perceptions of time in a healthy, young, non-clinical population of smokers emphasises the need for future research to delineate the attention-altering effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on addiction processes.”
