Psychedelics and time: Exploring altered temporal perception and its implications for consciousness, neuroscience, and therapy

Temporal distortions under psychedelic states

Psychedelic substances psilocybin, LSD, and DMT cause drastic changes in the perception of time, which users often describe in delirious metaphors. These distortions vary from the stretching and shrinking of time, to reaching a state of oblivion, in which there is no longer any appreciation of where time actually goes. One of the most frequently cited impacts of psychedelics is a perceived slowing of time (it feels like hours have passed when it's only been minutes). This change is commonly attributed to increased sensory processing, as psychedelics elevate neural oscillations in lower brain regions specializing in sensory input and emotional processing (4). Enhanced attention to sensory stimuli in a psychedelic state may interfere with time perception, as the brain attempts to process information at a higher rate.

At the other extreme, some people experience time distortion, with hours that feel like minutes. This could be due to intensive attentional or ego disintegration. Ego dissolution, a characteristic of high-dose psychedelic experiences, may loosen the individual's typical perceptual hold on time, such that time seems to accelerate. Less commonly considered, but relevant for understanding the psychedelic state, is time compression, which can be related to alterations in serotonin (5-HT) levels and the consequent effect on cortical activity, through the 5-HT_2A receptor (5).

A third, comparably remarkable feature is timelessness itself. Users frequently report a dissociation with the passing of time and a feeling of timelessness or eternity. This experience is often reported within profound mystical or transpersonal experiences, and is believed to be the product of changes in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain. The DMN is associated with self-referential thinking and perception of continuous time (6), and its suppression in psychedelic states may result in the dissolution of time as a boundary—so that past, present, and future are perceived as irrelevant or unified in a moment.

Because of the subjective nature of these temporal distortions, the experiences vary considerably depending on the type of drug, its dosage, and the individual's psychological set and setting. For example, psilocybin tends to be associated with experiences of timelessness, whereas LSD is more frequently related to profound time dilation (7). These distinctions observed between substances imply that differential pharmacological effects underlie the modifications to time perception, at least among psychedelics, demonstrating that the neural substrates that mediate these experiences are multifaceted. Overall, alterations in the perception of time under psychedelics provide a novel perspective to study the brain mechanisms in temporal processing and open new perspectives for the study of the role of consciousness in influencing what we consider reality.

Neurobiological mechanisms of altered time perception

Time perception is a complex cognitive process that emerges from the integrated activity of distributed brain regions, neurotransmitters, and neural synchrony (Figure 1). The basal ganglia are implicated in interval timing on the scale of hundreds of milliseconds, where they function as a putative internal clock, generating temporal predictions based on sensory evidence. The prefrontal cortex encodes longer time spans and combines information for planning and making decisions, which is crucial for controlling dynamic time-based tasks. The cerebellum refines motor coordination and precise timing by integrating sensory input and motor output for the precise timing of events. By integrating interoception of internal body states with cognitive processes, the insula plays a role in modulating how emotions and somatic sensations shape our perception of time (8, 9).

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Temporal processing is further regulated by major neurotransmitter systems. Dopamine, acting primarily through the basal ganglia, modulates shorter interval timing, and its dysregulation is linked to timing deficits. Serotonin, particularly via 5-HT_2A receptor activation, influences longer time scales and is the primary mediator of psychedelic-induced temporal distortions, interfacing emotional and sensory processing with subjective time experience. Glutamate, largely through N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission, supports the neural encoding and maintenance of precise temporal representations required for various cognitive tasks (10).

Precise time perception relies on temporal coordination of neural activity between distant brain areas, which is generally mediated by neural synchrony, that is, the simultaneous firing of neurons in diverse regions of the brain, via the tuning of neural oscillations such as theta (4–8 Hz) and gamma (30–100 Hz) rhythms. These rhythms are able to synchronize sensory, motor, and cognitive activities, and disturbances in this synchrony may result in a distorted perception of time (11). The system's inherent neuroplasticity makes it susceptible to modulation by factors such as attention, emotion, and psychoactive substances.

Psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, and DMT strongly affect the aforementioned neurobiological processes, resulting in disrupted time perception due to modulation of the brain's sensory, calm, and self-reference systems. A key brain network for the mediating role of these changes is the DMN, comprised of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and the angular gyrus. Related to self-referential thinking and the brain's internal model of time, it is suppressed by psychedelics. This DMN suppression correlates strongly with subjective reports of time dissolution and the loss of linear time perception (6).

Psychedelics also modulate cortical oscillations in the theta and alpha range, where this integration of sensory information over time is important. Modulations of the amplitude and coherence of these oscillations can result in dissonance between sensory inputs and the brain's temporal predictions, thereby inducing perceptions of time dilation or compression. The thalamus, an important relay center for sensory information, is also crucial for temporal processing. Psychedelics modulate thalamic activity, disrupting the synchronization of sensory inputs, which may result in time dilation, compression, or even timelessness (12).

The serotonergic system, particularly 5-HT_2A receptor activation, plays a central role in psychedelic modulation of time perception. Receptor activation enhances cortical excitability and increases the gain on sensory inputs, shifting precision toward bottom-up evidence and making temporal cues unusually salient; these network-level changes bias temporal processing and can appear as time dilation or compression. Membrane-receptor signaling can propagate via PLC-IP₃/Ca²⁺, β-arrestin/ERK, and CaMKII pathways to influence mitochondrial fission and fusion and overall bioenergetics (e.g., DRP1 and OPA1), tune endoplasmic-reticulum Ca²⁺ handling and endoplasmic reticulum–mitochondria contact sites that shape integration windows, and reorganize the actin cytoskeleton through Rho GTPases, thereby modulating spine dynamics, synaptic integration, and neuronal excitability. By jointly tuning excitability, temporal integration, and oscillatory synchrony, these subcellular processes establish a mechanistic bridge between receptor pharmacology and the neural coding of duration and sequence. At the systems level, psychedelics also attenuate prefrontal top-down constraints on sensory cortices, disrupting hierarchical inference and thalamocortical gating, thereby weakening the brain's capacity to bind events into a coherent temporal narrative (13).

In summary, psychedelics produce neurobiological changes that perturb the brain's typical temporal processing. Through their influence on major brain areas and neurotransmitter systems, neural synchronies, and network connectivity, these substances underlie altered time perceptions which can manifest as the experience of time dilation/compression and also timelessness.

Therapeutic implications of psychedelic-induced temporal distortions

The shift in the perception of time that psychedelics produce could be incredibly valuable therapeutically, especially in mental health disorders where temporal perception is disturbed, like depression, anxiety, PTSD, or addiction. Psychedelics do, however, modulate passage-time experiences, triggering insights, emotional catharsis, and cognitive recontextualization, which are often crucial elements to healing (14).

A primary therapeutic application of psychedelics lies in the reprocessing of traumatic memories. Evidence from psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy trials for PTSD suggests that these substances enable individuals to revisit traumatic events from a detached, nonlinear perspective. Such dissociation facilitates the processing of past experiences with reduced emotional intensity, thereby supporting meaning-making and the integration of traumatic memories. In psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, such experiences of temporal decoupling—understood in part through suppression of the DMN and altered connectivity with limbic structures—have been described by patients as a significant factor in the change of symptoms.

Temporary time distortions induced by psychedelics could also act to promote other types of psychological healing by disrupting patterns of thought. These substances act as effective time distorters, allowing new angles on emotional trauma and cognitive structures to be processed, updated, and integrated in more insightful and forgiving ways. This can be especially constructive in a state of depression or anxiety, when people feel trapped in negative time loops or oppressed by impending hopelessness.

Additionally, psychedelics provide access to understanding mental illnesses involving distortions of the sense of time. By altering time perception quite radically, they present an opportunity to study the neural and cognitive processes of time disruption by their drug-induced modulation in conditions such as schizophrenia and PTSD. When taken under the supervision of trained therapists and in the right set and setting, psychedelics may do the work of rewiring neural circuits implicated in time processing and emotion regulation, and so lead to more adaptive time perceptions (13). The therapeutic potential and associated risks of this mechanism warrant systematic evaluation. A longitudinal study tracking individuals with treatment-resistant PTSD undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy could be implemented, with objective measures of time perception (e.g., duration discrimination tasks) and neural activity functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) collected at baseline, immediately post-treatment, and during follow-up assessments.

However, these promising applications necessitate rigorous ethical consideration. Robust informed consent is paramount, ensuring patients understand the potential for profound alterations in consciousness, including distressing time distortions. Clinical protocols must include strategies to manage anxiety or confusion arising from these states. The risk of misuse demands administration only in controlled settings with professional oversight. Significant regulatory hurdles persist, as the classification of many psychedelics as Schedule I substances limits research. Establishing clear safety monitoring guidelines and defining regulatory pathways for approval are essential for the responsible integration of psychedelics into therapeutics.

In conclusion, the manipulation of time perception by psychedelics offers a powerful, though not yet fully understood, therapeutic lever. It is through the manipulation of time perception that psychedelics enable the reprocessing of traumatic events, accelerating traumatic resolution and opening avenues to new paradigms of mental health disorders with time perception at their core. Their potential should be fully realized, but should be deployed in a responsible manner with careful ethical consideration.