People doing intense exercise experience time warp, study finds

Researchers involved in the study are still unclear over what drives the shift in time perception. Photograph: Kateryna Kukota/Alamy

If your sessions at the gym seem to drag on for hours, you are in good company. People who push themselves when working out report a form of time warp, making it feel as if they have been exercising for longer than they have, researchers say.

Adults who took part in 4km cycling trials on exercise bikes perceived time to have slowed down, scientists said, with the cyclists overestimating how long they had been pedalling for by about 10%.