I'm also not a physicist, but as far as I understood special relativity and also according to this [1] Quora answer, the speed of light is same in every frame of reference, so the universe compensates variations in speed by dilating time. This is also consistent with Maxwell's equations [2].

[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-does-time-dilation-occur-And-why-d... [2] https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=2605