Podcast Summary:

The Observable Unknown – Interlude XXXVIII: Time Inside the Body: Stress, Urgency, and the Warped Clock
Host: Dr. Juan Carlos Rey
Date: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

In this evocative solo interlude, Dr. Juan Carlos Rey explores the fascinating and unsettling relationship between physiological states and our subjective experience of time. Rather than treating time as an objective, linear phenomenon, Dr. Rey delves into the science and lived experience showing how emotional and nervous system states warp, accelerate, slow, or even fragment our sense of passing time. Drawing on recent neuroscientific and psychological research, he challenges the idea of time as a neutral backdrop, and instead frames it as something actively constructed and deeply felt within the body—especially during periods of stress, trauma, and depression.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Time as a Felt Sense, Not a Neutral Constant

[00:01-01:05]

• "Time is not only measured, it is felt. And the feeling of time changes when the nervous system is under strain."
  Dr. Rey opens by challenging the conventional, linear view of time, asserting that the body’s experience of time is variable and deeply physiological.

• Repeated neuroscientific findings indicate subjective time perception is “elastic, not fixed.”

2. How Stress Distorts Time

[01:06-02:20]

• Emotional arousal from stress compresses perceived time – events feel like they “rush past in crisis.”
• Referencing Mark Wittman’s work, Dr. Rey notes that:
  • "Moments rush past in crisis, minutes stretch unbearably during despair."
• Chronic stress, as documented by Robert Sapolsky, keeps cortisol levels high, causing “perpetual urgency” where "the future collapses into the present," making long-term planning almost impossible.
• "Under these conditions, the brain favors speed over accuracy, reaction over reflection. Time feels scarce. Because safety feels scarce."
  This phrase underscores the link between urgent, stressful states and a sense of time shortage.

3. Trauma and the Fragmentation of Temporal Experience

[02:21-03:37]

• Traumatic stress doesn’t just compress or stretch time—it shatters it, creating a present that is “sheer survival,” where the past intrudes and the future becomes unthinkable.

• Citing neuroscientist David Eigelman, Dr. Rey explains that in traumatic situations, the brain's information processing “creates the illusion that events unfold in slow motion.”

• "Time in trauma is no longer a river. Instead, it becomes a series of ruptures, like puddles in a rainstorm."

• Trauma reorganizes, not just memory, but the structure of time itself for the sufferer.

4. Depression and Stagnant Time

[03:38-04:30]

• Depression brings the opposite distortion: time slows and thickens, becoming burdensome.
• Research shows that for the depressed,
  • "For identical intervals of clock time, minutes feel like hours. The present becomes vicious."
• The lack of motivation arises because time offers "no real promise." Here, time is not threatening but "burdens," trapping the self in a stagnant now.

5. Physiology as the Architect of Time Perception

[04:31-05:25]

• “The nervous system does not merely respond to time. It constructs it carefully or recklessly, depending on circumstance.”

• Dr. Rey synthesizes findings to show that calm and regulation widen the experience of time (“the vast ocean”), while dysregulation narrows or thickens it (“time collapses or congeals, thickening to mud”).

• He distills this into a philosophical reflection:

  • "The observable unknown is not why we misjudge time. It is why we believe time was ever objective to begin with."

6. Practical Reflection for Listeners

[05:26-06:07]

• Listeners are encouraged to notice their own embodied experience of time—“Does it seem to rush or is it dragging on?”
• Dr. Rey insists that these states are not "moral failures or successes," but “physiological signals.”
• "Time is not your enemy. It doesn't care who you are at all. Your nervous system is speaking and that is what time really is."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the territory of subjective time:

  "The clock on the wall does not change. The clock in the body does."
  (Dr. Juan Carlos Rey, 01:05)

• On trauma’s effect on time:

  "Time in trauma is no longer a river. Instead, it becomes a series of ruptures, like puddles in a rainstorm."
  (Dr. Juan Carlos Rey, 03:27)

• On depression and temporal burden:

  "Here, time does not threaten. It burdens. The self is trapped in an extended now with no momentum."
  (Dr. Juan Carlos Rey, 04:16)

• On the constructed nature of time:

  "The nervous system does not merely respond to time. It constructs it carefully or recklessly, depending on circumstance."
  (Dr. Juan Carlos Rey, 04:42)

• On physiological signals, not moral meaning:

  "These are not moral failures or successes. They are physiological signals. Time is not your enemy. It doesn't care who you are at all. Your nervous system is speaking and that is what time really is."
  (Dr. Juan Carlos Rey, 05:44)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01 – Opening reflection: questioning linear/objective time
• 01:06 – Stress and temporal acceleration; Mark Wittman’s research
• 02:20 – Cortisol, chronic stress, and urgency; Sapolsky's findings
• 02:55 – Trauma fragments time; neuroscience insights
• 03:38 – Depression thickens/slows time; subjective duration
• 04:31 – Time as construction of physiology, not philosophy
• 05:26 – Inviting listener reflection on embodied time
• 06:07 – Closing remarks and call for listener reflection

Tone and Style

Dr. Rey’s delivery is thoughtful, contemplative, and grounded in both scientific rigor and poetic reflection. He weaves empirical research with evocative metaphors, making complex neuroscience accessible and relevant to everyday experience.

Summary

This episode is a deeply resonant exploration of how stress, trauma, and depression can warp our perception of time—sometimes compressing it, sometimes stretching it, and sometimes breaking it altogether. Rather than being a problem of faulty thinking, our inner clocks are read as physiological signals reflecting the nervous system’s state. Dr. Rey’s blend of incisive analysis and gentle inquiry offers intellectual clarity, practical validation, and compassion for anyone struggling with a “warped clock”—inviting us to notice, without judgment, how time moves within our own bodies.