Does anyone else lay awake worrying about the speedy passage of time?!

[MarvellousMidgeMaisel]

I am 43, DH is 55 and DD is 7, we have a really happy family unit and a great relationship with parents-and although we're not without our worries, we are lucky.

I know everything seems amplified in the middle of the night- but I am exhausted today because I woke up in the night panicking about how fast time is going. The last 7 years have gone by in a blur (as happens with small children) and in the last few years my parents have gone from active and relatively youthful to showing signs of old age in what seems like the blink of an eye.
I am lucky enough to still have grandparents, but they are now in their 90's and very poorly, and I am kicking myself for not making more time for them when they were younger.

As there is quite an age gap between me and DH- there's another worry, I literally have palpitations panicking about anything happening to him and I just can't believe that in 5 years he'll be 60!

I guess the fact that we lost a good year of family time due to covid has a big part to play, but does anyone else feel like this? How do I make time slow down a bit and stop this late night dread?!

My mum made a comment about joking if she would still be here in 15 years.......that shocked me. As 15 years feels like it's flown by.

I then got to thinking, I'm halfway through my life.

How is time going so fast!

Yes I know how you feel. I'm 37 and since having kids time has literally flown by. I can't believe how quickly it goes and how I'm basically at the half way point now... the good years are probably behind me.. life just doesn't make any sense. I often wonder if when I die that's it, there is no afterlife.. just nothingness 🤯

I woke up thinking about this. I was thinking about how old my parents will be when my kids are 18 etc and it feels very scary. Most of the time I try to live in the moment and just enjoy it but occasionally it just creeps in.

I don’t exactly lie awake worrying about it, but since my rather elder sister will be hitting 80 this year, I do often find myself wondering how many of my siblings will still be around in 5 or 10 years - and thinking that in 20 years we’ll probably all be dead.
Still, much better dead than doubly incontinent in a care home costing ££££ a week, eating up dds’ inheritance.
Look on the bright side, and all that! 🙂

I'm in my 60's and have felt this, not in a worried way but in a 'oh heck, so much still to do, better get a move on' kind of way. I'm working on the premise that I'll live to at least 100 years, so I've got a good 30+ years left.

Time cannot be slowed down, but it can be stretched out by using every day/hour/minute to the best you can. Both my parents are gone now so I'm the 'older' generation. I have no responsibilities other than myself, and though that sounds selfish, I did all the caring for my parents for years.

So don't think the good years are behind you, think that there's still many more to come!

I genuinely have had to train myself from not thinking about this otherwise I become inconsolable thinking of my parents being gone, or any loved one really. My dad just turned 70 and I found it bizarrely terrifying.

Definitely. I feel properly down about how quickly time is passing. There's a part of me that doesn't feel "grown up" yet and then I look in the mirror!

I'm sad for all the missed opportunities and things that will never be (more kids, different life path). And absolutely the prospect of losing more family and friends - and challenges of ageing parents.

Gosh, sorry that ended up extremely negative.

And it speeds up as you get older. I'm 62 and a year seems to last about three months now. the 90s were yesterday,

Yes me too. Since I had children it feels like time has speeded up massively. It feels like my lifetime is hurtling by, and I haven't come to terms with that!

Maybe there's some mindful wisdom that would help?

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22579-chronophobia-fear-of-time

Well known phobia, apparently. I'm 70 this year and have this 'so much to do, so much to see, so much to read and I'm NEVER going to do everything I want.'

Doesn't keep me awake, though

Every now and then, a curious feeling creeps upon me. Why are we here, I wonder? Isn't it all so wonderfully strange and terrifying and magic? Time is passing! Oh my stars, one day I shall shuffle off this mortal coil - what on Earth does that truly signify? If we are but our brains, as evidenced by the alteration of character with a mere injury to said organ, then upon my demise and the dissolution of my brain, am I to be forever switched off like a flickering light bulb?
Why, oh why, do we humans squabble and battle endlessly on both the miniscule and grand scales when we have been bestowed with the incomprehensible marvel of life itself? Good gravy, we inhabit a spinning rock in the vast expanse of space within the Milky Way galaxy, and yet we fuss and fight as if our time here is limitless. OMG - WAIT A BLOODY MINUTE - I'M MADE OF ATOMS. Could we, if we wanted, dismantle ourselves atom by atom? I pass a mirror, instead of a young girl, I see a woman aging before my eyes. I have my father's face and my mother's mannerisms - OMG genetics are wild! I'm like a patchwork quilt of survival through the ages, each thread woven together to create the tapestry of my existence. The things our ancestors went through!the stories they could tell! Time ticks and tocks, never stopping, never slowing. Days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and before you know it, years have passed in the blink of an eye. OMG look at the stars. The mysteries and marvels of existence! Etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum. Then I have to pop some waffles in the oven and there's a knock at the door and my neighbours are yelling again and I'm thinking back to the fight between my dad and I in 1995 and I'm wondering if we should move to another country and I should really hop in the shower.....

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4991905-curiosities-about-the-passage-of-time-interesting-discussion-in-the-staff-room

I started this a few weeks ago but nobody commented on it. I thought it fits with your thread.

Yes. I get this awful feeling. I'd like to say occasionally but it happens quite a lot. I have to really force myself not to think about it.

Time definitely speeds up as you get older and makes you realise how short life is and encourages you to savour the good moments and small acheivements in life. My godson is 7 years younger than my DC and graduates from Uni in the summer! How on earth did that happen?!

It's terrifying. I have always been afraid of death, but when I was, say, 35 I could console myself with the thought that it was (hopefully) a long way off. Fortunately I'm still here, but now I'm 63, my parents are long gone, and I'm of the age when it won't be long before contemporaries start dying. I have been retired for 7 years and it feels like yesterday. And I'm still terrified of dying...😟

Yes. I've always been happy go lucky but am now, at 58, scarily aware that time is flying by.

My DF died aged 46 and my Stepmum at 63. Only 5 years older than I am now.

Yes, I'm 41 with very young children and I worry about them losing their parents before they're old enough. My husband is 7 years older than me. I look at their grandparents as well and think it must be really hard for them (all in their 70s) knowing that they probably won't be around to see the kids as adults and will never get to know what kind of people they turn out to be. The whole things just scares the crap out of me.

It's flying and I seem trapped between fear and overwhelming guilt for not making the most of things now when all that lies ahead is disease, dementia and death.

I do have a panic about it every now and then. We spend our lives looking forward to things, holidays, the weekend etc and before you know it a year has gone by

I feel this all the time. I don’t know what has changed since DC2 came along but I feel consumed by those thoughts most days. I’m 37, DH in his 40s and both sets of parents in their 70s.

These words that @SirenSays I seem trapped between fear and overwhelming guilt for not making the most of things now

This is definitely me. I feel guilty for not 'making the most' of every day, but how do you do that when the drudgery of life holds you prisoner eg work, bills, school run etc

Thank you for all your replies and sorry for creating such a downer of a thread! However, it's good to share these things and I feel comforted to know I'm not alone.
As a PP mentioned upthread, I guess all you can do is make every second count.

This is me!

Currently really struggling with this. On maternity leave with my second and very aware how quickly time is passing. Maybe I am focusing on it more at the moment especially as don't have work as a mental distraction!

This is the sort of existential crisis I have in the middle of the night. Can't wrap my head around suddenly not existing. What happens to all my experiences, thoughts, feelings, knowledge and more? 🤯

Me too. It sounds utterly self-centred but I always think how it feels impossible that the world will continue as normal once I'm gone. The same places will exists, people will still just be going about their business as usual, but I'll be gone! Blows my mind 😂