How is the duration of effects measured in Skyrim?

Question

Potions and certain items grant benefits like enhancing smithing or having increased health generation for a certain duration. How is this time measured? Is this clock time or in-game time? Does time spent in menus count against the given time?

Answer

The duration for effects are all measured in clock time¹. The game time, by default, is set to a scale of 20, so 1 minute in real time is equivalent to 20 minutes in game time.

This other question explains exactly what actions freeze the game time.

¹Waiting and fast travel, despite not advancing much clock time, does count against the durations.

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