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

Read the Paper All Publications

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.