If You See Timelines in Your Head, You're Probably a Synesthete

I went my whole life thinking my brain worked just like everyone else's. It's natural to assume that your thought patterns aren't unique to you, that everyone sees things as you do. But when I was an upperclassman in high school, I learned about this fascinating thing called synesthesia and realized that I was in fact a synesthete. I can't even remember exactly how I discovered it, but it blew my mind to know that I'd gone my whole life without realizing my brain functioned slightly differently than the average mind.

I remember having conversations with family members about how I see time and being deeply confused when they looked at me like I was a total nut job. I realized one day that the way I had been conceptualizing time wasn't by any means average.

When I found out that most people don't see time, I found it kind of unsettling. I couldn't imagine not having this concrete perception of time. Like how do people remember historical dates? How do people remember birthdays? How do people get through life without forgetting events and appointments?

Most people are probably more familiar with other types of synesthesia, such as the kinds in which people associate colors with numbers, letters, or even musical notes. I personally find those to be way cooler than the kind of synesthesia I have, which is time-space or spatial-sequence synesthesia.

I know that there are probably plenty of other people out there who are just like I was and have spatial-sequence synesthesia but are completely unaware of it. So I'm going to explain just what the condition is and just what it's like to have this phenomenon occur inside my brain every day.

So, what is spatial-sequence synesthesia?

Spatial-sequence synesthesia, or time-space synesthesia, is a type of synesthesia in which people see time spatially in their mind's eye. (Some people even envision time outside of their body, but I don't have that cool gift.) People with time-space synesthesia don't consciously decide to see time this way. This ability is built into our brains, and we don't have any say in how we get to see time laid out spatially in our minds. That means that whenever we think of time, we see certain timelines in our heads completely involuntarily, and we have for as long as we can remember. The timelines don't change throughout the years.

When neuroscientists have done brain scans on people with synesthesia, they've discovered that their brains literally function differently. The very meaning of synesthesia is that two senses work together that usually wouldn't. Spatial-sequence synesthesia is technically considered to be "ideasthesia," as it's the act of thinking about a concept which elicits a sensory response. It's as if wires have been crossed in our brains, but in a really cool way.

Spatial-sequence synesthesia changes the whole way we perceive time, and we're inherently aware of time because of it. Therefore, time feels much more concrete to us. People have joked that we're "real-life time lords," but I think that might be a bit of a stretch. 

What's it like living with this kind of synesthesia?

Ever since I can remember, I have seen time in sequences and timelines. I have always had a timeline of years in my head. Just to help you better understand what this looks like, I'm going to get really specific about exactly how synesthesia looks in my head. In my timeline, the beginning of time through the year 2000 is a straight line, then time turns a corner to the right at the year 2000, then time goes in a straight line until 2020, then it turns to the left and goes in a straight line into infinity. 

I also see the year in a circle/square. Time moves in a clockwise motion, and in my mind, I move towards whichever month I am currently in. This makes me more tangibly aware of how far I am through the year, which can be kind of depressing at times (especially if I haven't achieved all that I wanted to throughout the year).

The week is also in a circle/square, with the weekend being on one side of the circle/square and taking up more space than weekdays (if only that reflected reality). This can make my life feel very stressful at times, because I often feel like time is running out and therefore struggle to be fully present in the moment. On Sundays, for example, I find it hard to enjoy resting because I feel as if I can see myself spatially moving closer and closer to Monday.

I also see the day as a faint kind of semicircle, and I can often envision myself moving through the hours. The strange thing is that my sequences of time don't always have concrete, defined shapes that I can draw out easily (hence the fact that I defined my other timelines as "circle/square"). They don't always make perfect sense spatially because they're not completely static. Maybe my imagination is subpar, but these spatial sequences are very arbitrary and subjective for each person. Ask multiple time-space synesthetes how they see time and you'll likely get very different answers.

The thing about synesthesia is that you can't switch it on or off depending on your mood. Some people purposefully create mnemonic devices in their heads, kind of like Sherlock with his mind palace. That's not how synesthesia works. It's an involuntary cognitive function that you can't control.

I have noticed that at some points in my life, I've felt more or less aware of my synesthesia. For instance, if I'm studying WWII and reading about dates of certain events, my historical timeline will pop up more than usual. But overall, my synesthesia is ever-present, even to the point that I sometimes forget it's there. Synesthesia is kind of like breathing. You don't usually consciously think about how you breathe because you just do it.

I also see letters and numbers in my head (such as when I'm counting in French), and I can see myself spatially moving to different ages as I get older (0 to 20 is a straight line, then 20 to infinity takes a left turn, kind of like in my timeline of years).

How common is this kind of synesthesia?

I've heard some varying statistics when it comes to synesthesia. I've read that as many as 1 in 5 people might have the neurological condition, but I've also read that as few as 1 in 2000 people have it. It really all depends on which studies and surveys you happen to be reading. So, it's kind of hard to say exactly just how common synesthesia is, particularly when it comes to the various kinds.

In some sources, I've read that spatial-sequence synesthesia might be one of the most common kinds of synesthesia. What's also interesting is that synesthesia is generally more common in creative types such as artists, writers, and musicians. I myself have always been pretty creative and have always dreamed of becoming a writer, so this seems to ring true.

Does having synesthesia make you a mad genius?

I was deeply disappointed when I read somewhere that synesthesia doesn't really have much to do with intelligence. So you can have an average IQ and still have synesthesia. This kind of bummed me out as I liked to think that synesthesia was somehow linked to superior intellect. Sorry to break it to you, fellow synesthetes, but we're just not that brilliant. However, people with spatial-sequence synesthesia have been known to perform better when it comes to memory recall, which is no real surprise considering how we use our timelines to store such a large amount of information.

Having spatial-sequence synesthesia definitely has its perks.

Having spatial-sequence synesthesia can be kind of pesky at times, as a hyperawareness of time isn't always ideal. But there are a lot of really cool things about this particular kind of synesthesia, as it's basically a built-in mnemonic device.

Because of my mental image of the week, I don't really need a planner or a calendar. I write to-do lists, but it's very rare that I'll forget an event that's coming up because I can literally see everything laid out in my head. The way I see the year in my head also makes it exceptionally easy for me to remember birthdays because I can see people's birthdays in my mind's eye.

My built-in timeline makes it much easier for me to remember things like historical dates, the years that albums came out, and the years that books were published, along with events from my own life. I'll always remember random things like when Jane Eyre was published and when U2's The Joshua Tree came out, and it really irks me when people get the dates of the world wars wrong (FYI, WWII did not start in 1941). People probably find my obsession with dates to be a little weird, but it's just a part of how I make sense of the world.

Although I'd sometimes like to just be present in the moment and not constantly visualize how the weekend is about to end or how the hours of the day are slowly running out, I wouldn't give up my synesthesia for the world. Spatial-sequence synesthesia is a really awesome gift that has been immensely useful to me throughout the years. If you also have this kind of synesthesia and only just realized that you do, be grateful for it and be sure to cherish its numerous perks.