Research shows the brain’s processing speed is significantly faster than real time

November 16, 2007 | Source: PhysOrg.com

Bruce McNaughton, a University of Arizona professor of psychology and physiology, and his colleague David Euston have shown that during sleep, the reactivated memories of real-time experiences are processed within the brain at a higher rate of speed.

That rate can be as much as six or seven times faster, and what McNaughton calls “thought speed.”

While an actual dining experience might have taken up an hour of actual time, replaying the memory of it would only take 8 to 10 minutes. The reason, McNaughton said, is that the speed of the consolidation process isn’t constrained by the real world physical laws that regulate activity in time and space.