The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen." Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all. As much as 70 percent of the population reports having experienced some form of déjà vu. A higher number of incidents occurs in people 15 to 25 years old than in any other age group. The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike.
Psychologists who study memory point out that we have memories for things that have happened to us, and also memory for where we encountered the things that happened to us. That memory for where we encountered information is called source memory. When you experience deja vu, it feels like you know what’s going to happen a second or a few seconds from now. It usually lasts 5-10 seconds. While you are having the experience, it feels like you have either had the exact same experience before, or you know exactly what is about to happen.
Don’t confuse deja vu with feeling like you have done something before when you really have done that thing before. Then you’re just experiencing something you have already experienced in your past. True deja vu is the uncanny feeling that you have experienced something that you know you have not yet experienced.
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