Is Time Real or a Figment of our Imaginations?

The master of the clock relents,
The ledger of all time balanced,
An hour borrowed, the debt repaid
And now a twenty-five hour day!
        (R Weisser 2012) 

Our lives are controlled by time. Appointments, deadlines, bills that are due all add stress to our animal existence.

We have amazing technology that helps us keep track of time. And we have become dependent on knowing what time it is at every moment of the day.

And yet this critical overlay of celestial authority can be altered by an arbitrary mandate from a worldly source.

So my question is this:

Is time real, or just a contract that we have all agreed to respect? If time can be changed so easily, is it just a figment of our imaginations and not an immutable natural element?

For me, I’ll take the extra hour of sleep.

Apparently I needed it!