Making your way gloomily to the airport after an action-packed holiday, it is easy to feel the days have flown by all too quickly. But there is no need to worry because once you return to the daily grind your break will suddenly seem like it lasted for a lifetime.

人们总在行程忙碌的度假收拾行李去机场时感叹“欢乐时光过得特别快”。但这无需担心，回归正常生活之后，这段快乐回忆却像一辈子般的长久。

So say psychologists who believe that the effect is down to the different methods the brain uses to judge the passage of time. Learning to manipulate our perception of time could make our lives feel fuller and reassure those who feel that the years slip by faster as they grow older.

心理学家们说这是由于大脑在处理时间流逝时使用不同的方法导致的结果。学会利用时间的分布可以让我们的生活更加充实，也会让人们随着年龄增加忆起往事时，觉得日子过得飞快。

The mystery behind the so-called "holiday paradox" was explained in a presentation by psychologist and BBC broadcaster Claudia Hammond at the British Psychological Society conference in London last week. Ms Hammond, whose book Time Warped will be published next month, said when we are doing something new and interesting – such as when we are on holiday – time appears to go more quickly than when we are bored or anxious.

关于“假日悖论”背后的奥妙，是由心理学家兼英国BBC播报员Claudia Hammond 上周在伦敦举办的英国心理社会会议上阐述的。汉孟的新书《把时间打包》将于下个月出版，她表示当我们做一些新鲜和有趣的事情时，就例如当我们度假的时候，时间会过的比我们觉得厌烦或焦虑时要快很多。

In a normal fortnight the average person only accumulates between six and nine new memories because so much of what we do is routine.But on a holiday we can build up that number of memories in a single day because everything we experience is new, meaning that when we look back it will seem to have lasted much longer than it really did.

人们在平常生活里，半个月下来顶多记住6至9件新事情，其他大多数则为“例行公事”。但在假期里，我们可以在就建立很多的记忆，因为我们体验的每件事都是新的，也就是说当我们后来回想追溯时，在时间的评估上会将时程拉长。

She said: "The same happens as we get older and time starts to speed up. There are fewer memories of new things, and we do the same things more and more often."

她说：“随着年龄的增长日子会过得飞快，这是因为我们越来越多地做着重复的事情，新鲜事物的记忆越来越少，这也可用‘假期悖论’ 进行说明。”

People who complain that years seem to whizz past with increasing speed could slow things down by making the most of their weekends and breaking up their daily routine, she added. "Taking a different route to work, getting off your bus a stop early or avoiding having the same sandwich for lunch every day could make life seem a little slower," she said.

“抱怨时间越过越快的人们可以充分利用他们的周末，打破常规的生活习惯来放慢时间的脚步”，她补充道。她说：“如果每天换不同线路去上班，吃不一样的午餐，或许可以稍微改变对时间的感觉。”