Chronostasis: When time appears to freeze!

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you look at a clock, one with a second hand, that first tick after you turn to the clock seems to take ages. That next tick seems to take much longer than just a single second. So why should that be. Welcome to the weird world of a phenomenon known as chronostasis.

Chronostasis happens immediately after a saccade. A saccade is a quick sudden eye movement from one point of fixation to another, so for instance from whatever you were looking at to suddenly looking at the clock. Chronostasis involves a number of stages involving both the eyes and the brain.