NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed

tracer818 writes "In order to study a person as if they were in space without gravity, NASA scientists are paying subjects $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 straight days. The study will follow the Bed Rest Project standard model and be conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Participants will live in a special research unit for the entire study and be fed a carefully controlled diet."

ESA Has Done Studies Long Ago

[eldavojohn]

The US is very badly lagging in the international bed rest race! I thought I read somewhere about the ESA doing this two years ago [esa.int] for female astronauts at least. There's some interesting comments on their WISE page [esa.int] such as:

All volunteers were surprised how fast the time passed by.

I'll bet that month you spend in bed is completely lost with little or no memories for it.

And if you really want to know more, they published all their findings for all their experiments in five hefty PDFs [esa.int].

Re:I'm in.

[Slashdot Suxxors]

Yep.

Re:What's that movie?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Actually, on a more serious note, I saw something like this on Discovery (or NatGeo, I can't remember). The purpose of the study wasn't just to observe patients suffering from bed sores and blood clots. They were subjected to 2 minute exercise regimens every day which were designed to keep them in good physical health even though the rest of the day they were bedridden. The goal was to create exercise devices that could be used quickly and simply without the need for gravity that would provide enough exercise to replace the amount we normally perform here on Earth.

It looked pretty grueling, even if only for 2 minutes a day.

Re:I'm in.

[maxume]

I don't know if it is the latest. I heard it at least 5 years ago. It's been in the urban dictionary that long also:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rub+one+out [urbandictionary.com]

I imagine that it was first said decades ago.

Re:I'm in.

[genner]

From the article. "It's unclear, however, whether you'll be allowed to read with a flashlight under the covers."

Re:And then...?

[PopeRatzo]

Bed sores, or decubitus ulcers, are most often caused when the person laying down either cannot move around readily to relieve the pressure of laying in one place or cannot feel the discomfort caused from laying in one place.

If you use some isometric exercises, you could minimize the damage of the time in bed.

Re:I'm in.

[Carthag]

I can't believe I researched this. It goes back at least 15 years. I tried searching in Google Books & IMDB quotes as well, but the only citations prior to 1993 were in different contexts.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.beer/browse_frm/thread/66eb379b321b2433/11e668a230018072?lnk=st&q=%22rub+one+out%22#11e668a230018072 [google.com]
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tasteless.jokes/browse_frm/thread/1299b8d6d59e0f1e/45022260920fd617?lnk=st&q=%22rub+one+out%22#45022260920fd617 [google.com]

USSR did this too.

[Cyberax]

There was a similar research program in the USSR - subjects lied on bed for 6 months without moving.

As far as I remember, one subject broke his femur when he tried to stand for the first time after the test. Also, all subjects experienced frequent orthostatic collapses (i.e. they fainted then they tried to stand up).

The damage was quickly corrected by using calcium gluconate injections and physical therapy.

Alas, I can't find a source for this in English.

Re:may be more difficult than some may imagine

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a new bed. Seriously.

Up until I moved to a new country (leaving my old bed behind) I had never had any back problems or pain or stiffness.

Upon renting a furnished apartment with a god-awful, overly firm bed, I have had constant pain and stiffness just like you describe.

I'm already hunting for a replacement mattress that is closer to the one I was used to - if you try a new mattress you may get sudden relief :)
(Oh, and apparently doing core exercises to strengthen your abdominals and lower back muscles can help as well).