Commentary: Spanish athlete’s 500-day isolation in a cave holds insights about our sense of time

Flamini, however, lived with an empty schedule stretching out into her future. No work meetings to prepare for, no appointments to hurry to and no social diary to manage.

She led a self-paced existence, where she could eat, sleep, and read as and when she liked. She occupied herself painting, exercising and documenting her experiences. This may have made the passage of time irrelevant.

As the biological rhythms of sleep, thirst and digestion took over from the ticking hands of the clock, Flamini may have simply paid less and less attention to the passage of time, causing her to eventually lose track of it.

Flamini’s ability to let go of time may have been enhanced by her strong desire to achieve her 500-day goal. After all, she decided to go into the cave and she could leave if she wanted to.

For people who become confined against their will, time can become a prison itself. Prisoners of war and people serving prison sentences often report that monitoring the passage of time can become an obsession. It would seem that we are only able to really let go of time when we are in control of it.

Flamini’s freedom may make leaving civilisation behind for the caves look like an appealing prospect. However, life underground is not for the fainthearted. Survival depends upon your ability to maintain a high level of mental resilience.

If you have have the ability to remain calm and composed when things get tough, a strong belief that you are in control of your own behaviours, known as an internal locus of control, and become easily absorbed in your own thoughts, you made have the fortitude to succeed. However, you might find it simpler to switch off your notifications, clear the calendar and get lost in a bit of me time.

Ruth Ogden is Reader in Experimental Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.