I just published a new paper exploring how sleep changes our internal clock — and why time can feel like it compresses, stretches, or straight-up teleports depending on state, architecture, and neurocognitive load. This is a systems-level look at perception, memory, and timing — with practical implications for health, performance, and clinical interpretation.
Read the paper here:
baileygwyn.xyz/publications/papers/memory-sleep-time-dialtion
What this argues
Time perception isn’t one knob — it’s an emergent output from attention, memory encoding, arousal, and sleep-stage dynamics.
Why sleep matters
REM/NREM cycling can distort retrospective timing by changing what gets encoded (and how densely it’s stored).
Clinical angle
Insomnia, hypersomnia, fragmentation, meds, and neuroinflammation can shift perceived time — affecting patient reports and functional outcomes.
Abstract (short)
This paper synthesizes research across sleep physiology, cognitive neuroscience, and subjective timing to propose a practical framework for sleep-linked time dilation. It distinguishes prospective versus retrospective timing, maps state-dependent mechanisms (arousal, attention, memory density) to sleep-stage behavior, and outlines hypotheses for clinical measurement and intervention.