Time Distortion, Focus & Hypnosis: How the Brain’s Executive Control Slows Down When We Drop In

Explore how hypnosis and absorbed states alter the brain’s sense of time by deactivating the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), making space for therapeutic change.

Time Distortion, Focus & Hypnosis: How the Brain’s Executive Control Slows Down When We Drop In

INTRODUCTION 

When you sink into deep focus — lost in a book, a piece of music, or a hypnotic suggestion — time can seem to bend. Minutes stretch or disappear. This familiar drift isn’t magic: it’s your brain’s executive control system easing its grip.

The Neuroscience of Time Distortion in Hypnosis 

Modern neuroscience shows that during hypnosis and similar ‘absorbed states,’ the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) — the region that keeps track of goals, self-monitoring, and the passage of time — quiets down (Faymonville et al., 2000). As the DLPFC steps back, other brain networks, like the default mode network, become more active, letting the mind wander and reorganise connections (Oakley & Halligan, 2013).

This helps explain why hypnosis works for pain, phobias, or anxiety. By softening the brain’s tight grip on time and self, it opens space for new learning and deep suggestion. The person stays awake but drifts inwards — a state that can be guided gently by a skilled practitioner or learned as self-hypnosis (Yapko, 2018).

Why Hypnosis Isn’t Sleep 

Many also report that time distortion during hypnosis is not just a curiosity — it’s therapeutic. When the ‘mental clock’ fades, our usual stress loops and rigid patterns loosen. This is why people often emerge from a hypnotic session feeling as if time stretched out — or vanished entirely — while the brain quietly rewrote old links.

So next time you find yourself drifting during meditation, breathwork, or guided hypnosis, notice that strange sense of timelessness. It’s not wasted time — it’s your brain stepping out of its own way to change.

• Faymonville, M. E., Laureys, S., Degueldre, C., Del Fiore, G., Luxen, A., Franck, G., … & Maquet, P. (2000). Neural mechanisms of antinociceptive effects of hypnosis. Anesthesiology, 92(5), 1257–1267. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200005000-00010

• Oakley, D. A., & Halligan, P. W. (2013). Hypnotic suggestion: Opportunities for cognitive neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(8), 565–576. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3538

• Yapko, M. D. (2018). The Discriminating Therapist: Asking “How” Questions, Making Distinctions, and Finding Direction in Therapy. Crown House Publishing.