Study Finds That Astronauts Are Severely Sleep Deprived 106
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "Researchers tracked the sleep patterns of 85 crew members aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle and found that despite an official flight schedule mandating 8.5 hours of sleep per night, they rarely got more than five. In fact, getting a full night's rest was so difficult that three-quarters of shuttle mission crew members used sleep medication, and sometimes entire teams were sedated on the same night. Given that sleep deprivation contributes to up to 80% of aviation accidents, it's important to better understand why sleep is so difficult in space, the authors say."
how dark can it be on the ISS? (Score:1)
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Re:how dark can it be on the ISS? (Score:5, Funny)
With the exception of the cosmic rays shooting through their eyes....
Re:how dark can it be on the ISS? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent is probably referring to Cosmic ray visual phenomena [wikipedia.org]
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This phenomenon also seems to occur in the darkness of caves as well.
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Granted, however, it's going to happen more often in orbit.
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Maybe there are radioactive elements underground as well.
For me, the best the sleeps I had were in a hotel room which had air filtering, blackout curtains and was on the end of the top floor, well away from all the other guests banging and clattering their suitcases through the corridors.
But move to the same kind of room right next to the main hallway, and it was impossible to get a deep sleep, because there was always someone every hour who figured the best way to open a door that opened inwards was to hit
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As to the astronauts' problems, I expect that between the hum of equipment, the extremely short orbital period the station has, the feeling of weightlessness from a s
Re:how dark can it be on the ISS? (Score:5, Insightful)
In the weightlessness of space nothing presses against the body and skin to any degree. I could not sleep well like that. One way to solve it is to take a 55 gallon drum, or something bigger, and spin it, create microgravity like that, but the air friction becomes an issue, plus dizziness from uneven centrifugal forces as small radii, compared to a 300 meter radius spinning cylinder space station. Another way to create skin pressure is to use inflatable things, that look like sleeping bags, inflated to just the right pressure, not too tight, not too loose, just comfortable. I used to have inflatable air beds from walmart, and they were awesome comfortable down here in Earth's gravity, especially when they haven't been inflated for days or weeks, and slightly deflated, but without exception somebody comes into the house and pokes a hole into them when I'm not at home, or when I'm asleep, to where they end up totally deflated and it feels as if you are sleeping on the bare hard floor. So inflatable sleeping bags for now, maybe some kind of small radius slow spinning device that does not cause too much dizziness, and 300 meter radius rotating space stations with sleeping bags in the future, is the solution. That's my 2 cents, or more like 2.1 cents due to inflation.
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I agree that sensory deprivation must be the cause of sleeplessness for the astronauts.
I agree that it may be a contributory factor. I doubt very much it is a singular cause.
... I can't sleep without something pressing down on my skin, and even in the heat, a simple thin bedsheet, which is much colder, is not as good from the comfortable pressure feeling perspective
This cannot be the cause. Again it might contribute but this effect is not just possible but rather easy to simulate in microgravity. Not exactly, you understand, but closely enough that it should not be a problem. Imagine a blanket held against you gently by elastic or springs. Or... by pressure on the blanket from the outside via extremely soft foam. (By "easy" I did not mean cheap.)
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There have been experiments in this area: one design for the sleeping bag had an inflatable ring around the bag's perimeter. When inflated, it pulled the sleeping bag taut to provide some pressure on the body.
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I have an access point in the bedroom with some obnoxiously bright blue LEDs. They're bright enough that you can almost read by the light it throws off. To make things
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Yes, a spinning wheel for artificially created gravity solves one problem, but leaving LEO and the protection inside the Van Allen Belts for geostationary orbit . . . I fear you'd sleep better, but you'd be sleeping in a microwave, having given up lots of your radiation shielding.
Water shielding or "building inside an asteroid" . . . are both currently unfeasible for lift-weight or maneuverability.
S
Melatonin! (Score:2)
Studies have shown that experiencing bright light (and especially, as mentioned, of certain frequencies) straight up to bedtime, not only after bed, is known to interfere with melatonin production and other less significant hormones
Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd want to soak up every minute of it. Maybe they should look into the mechanism called: "It's frickin awesome."
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wow, someone voted this down to troll? it's pretty innocuous and pretty on topic.
Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, someone contact these authors:
Given that sleep deprivation contributes to up to 80% of aviation accidents, it's important to better understand why sleep is so difficult in space, the authors say.
Causes range from slipping the surly bonds of earth, to floating weightless around a space station, to being able to look out a window and see the place where nearly every recorded event in human history has happened from a vantage that you would never otherwise get. Everything from showering to eating to pooping to masturbating is new again!
I would probably have to spend at least a month on the space station before the idea of closing my eyes for an extended period sounded like a good use of my time.
Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Excitement may be a factor, but I suspect fear and stress are the more powerful factors. Most adults don't stay up in anticipation of the excitement of Christmas, but they will lose sleep over upcoming deadlines, during financial difficulty, etc. I suspect it's pretty stressful being in space, between performing mission requirements, being separated from loved ones, and being protected from death by only a few mm of aluminum, not to mention the anticipation of re-entry. Add to that the lack of privacy and alone time, the alien physiological sensation of weightlessness, and restraints and tethers to prevent floating around. I suspect that comfort is in short supply, and that it may well be difficult to truly relax in such an alien environment.
Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:5, Funny)
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This is my favorite comment from slashdot ever.
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There was a survey about color blindness earlier on
Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:4, Interesting)
I read the Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal [nasa.gov] during the anniversary back on July 20th, and one of the entries that stood out to me was a section called "Trying to Rest," which detailed a time between the end of the astronauts' moonwalk, but prior to when they needed to make preparations to liftoff from the Moon. A period of about 7 hours was scheduled for the astronauts to sleep, but
In their technical debrief, Armstrong and Aldrin detailed some problems with their sleep environment- too cold, too bright, too noisy, but yeah, that they were also just too excited to sleep. (It does mention that most of the technical problems were worked out by Apollo 15, and the last few crews got decent sleep on the lunar surface. I'm still convinced that if it were me, I would have responded to planned rest periods with "HOUSTON, I CAN SLEEP WHEN I GET BACK FROM THE MOON, OVER.")
Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I have been on a Zero-G "Vomit comet" flight, and it *was* "frickin awesome" until about the 15th parabola, then I started feeling extremely nauseated. I'm lucky we landed before I needed to throw up (some poor shmuck paid $6000 for the flight and had to strap himself into a seat so he could throw up constantly into a bag after the very first parabola). However, I have never felt more motion-sick -- it was *awful* -- and it didn't subside for over five hours after we landed.
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not an uncommon problem (Score:3)
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I don't think I would be able to. Every moment in space feels like you're on a roller coaster drop. Your stomach constantly feels like it's in your throat. Not even the tightest strap can make your internals feel like you're back on solid ground. It would be amazing to experience space but awful to live there without some kind of artificial gravity.
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For the first couple of seconds you are in a true freefall, relatively unencumbered by air resistance, accelerating.
You're already experiencing significant drag when you jump out of that aircraft at 100 knots. You're only in something closely resembling freefall when you jump from a balloon, or base jump.
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It is like no one even understands space. It is like everyone is blinded my the laserwork of star trek space battles. It is, by definition, the most boring place in the universe; Bar none.
It is not subjectively boring like a poetry reading, it is objectively boring. And not only boring, but, again, the most boring place in the universe, by definition. The place where, by definition, nothing ever happens and nothing ever is, or at least relatively nothing compared to
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Wow (Score:2)
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Apparently I sleep like an astronaut.
Yeah, no kidding. I didn't think five hours was all that odd these days.
Did they try reading a book? (Score:2)
That helps me sometimes.
Oh, and no coffee late in the evening.
503 and 504 errors (Score:2)
Earth to astronauts: Go to sleep
By Emily Underwood
7 August 2014 6:30 pm
It's hard to sleep in outer space. On the International Space Station (ISS), the sun rises every 90 minutes when the station circles Earth. Space suits can be uncomfortable, too: After landing on the moon in 1969, Buzz Aldrin reported getting only âoea couple of hours of mentally fitful drowsingâ due to the noise and the cold.
Now, a new study published online today in The Lancet Neurology shows the extent of sleep deprivation among astronauts. Researchers tracked the sleep patterns of 85 crew members aboard the ISS and space shuttle and found that despite an official flight schedule mandating 8.5 hours of sleep per night, they rarely got more than five. [thelancet.com]
In fact, getting a full night's rest was so difficult that three-quarters of shuttle mission crew members used sleep medication, and sometimes entire teams were sedated on the same night. Although, unlike astronauts from Aldrin's day, crew members now sleep in quiet, dark chambers, lack of gravity itself may contribute to the problem.
Given that sleep deprivation contributes to up to 80% of aviation accidents, it's important to better understand why sleep is so difficult in space, the authors say.
I used this: http://www.viewcached.com/http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/08/earth-astronauts-go-sleep [viewcached.com]
Yahoo is the only site that had it cached.
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sleep apnea (Score:2)
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Not as good as you might think.
No gravity means lower blood pressure, which means a softer penis. And then comes the deed itself. Sex requires something for the man to push against while the woman prevents being pushed. However in space there is little to grab on to and your combined motion s will throw you both into things.
That being said I volunteer to try it out with nearly any woman who wants too.
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Want male astronauts to sleep? Get 'em laid. (Score:2, Informative)
Everyove knows how fast men fall asleep after they have taken care of themselves.
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If you're going to fap in zero gravity, please do your flightmates the courtesy of using a condom. It goes everywhere.
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Or the old Navy trick: keep one sock under your mattress. Replace it when it can stand up on its own.
Cosmic Ray Visual Phenomena (Score:1)
This is nothing new, and is surely not news; perhaps quantifying it and writing an article for a magazine bleeding subscribers is relevant, but this has been discussed since mankind breached the outer limits of the atmosphere.
Blindingly obvious link for anybody with a Freshman-Year level physics course: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena [wikipedia.org]
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I'd find it particularly difficult to sleep wearing a facehugger [wikia.com]. Its probably almost as bad as when the cat decides to flop down on my head at night.
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I'd find it particularly difficult to sleep wearing a facehugger.
You must be doing it wrong. Per your wikia link:
" the Facehugger cuts off the blood supply to the victim's brain, knocking them out within seconds"
You really should sleep fine. :)
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Thanks for telling me about that.
I'm testing it out to see if I get newlines without inserting br html codes.
Here it goes,
let's see if it works:
Tadaa!!!
PS. Oh man, it did work in the preview, but now I'm gonna lose that edge of insanity that adds a special annoying touch to my posts, and people might end up thinking I'm just another sane person. Now I'll have to try extra hard to post blocks of text, without hitting the enter key. Oh wait, that's how I post anyway, when I started posting here in April after
Sleeping patterns? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think there's ever been a proper study of astronauts' natural sleeping patterns in space. There are always more things people want astronauts to do than there are hours to do them in, so everything (including sleep) is very tightly scheduled. Nobody's ever said "spend the next week doing nothing but keeping your spaceship running, and do it on your own schedule".
We don't know what effect, if any, the freefall environment has on sleep patterns. It may be that astronauts are so sleep-deprived because Mission Control has been scheduling things wrong.
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and again, it's friggin awesome. I have trouble falling asleep too if i'm even slightly enthused about something. let alone if i have something on my mind. factor in the buttload of work, the idea that every second counts and the fact that being weightless might be the most awesome thing that a person could be... and well, I AM SUPER SURPRISED.
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Nobody's ever said "spend the next week doing nothing but keeping your spaceship running, and do it on your own schedule".
Actually, that's pretty much what happened to Sergei Krikalev who was scheduled to return to earth in October 1991, but stayed in the Mir Space Station until March 1992 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Excercise (Score:2)
What about the mental health? (Score:2)
I blame Tang (Score:2)
Sleeping for four hours (Score:1)
sleep (Score:1)
They should look at this: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi... [bbc.com]
Too much crap in space research/science nowadays.
All the NASA scientists who are proposing one way trips to Mars should go on one way trips out of NASA. That'll improve NASA. One way trips to Mars are a waste of money, time and resources. NASA should just get with the real next step and build a space station with artificial gravity. Not talk about stupid one way trips to Mars.
Trying to go to Mars at this point of our "tech tree" is like trying to ju
Who would have guessed? (Score:2)
In space no one can hear you snore.
Submarines (Score:1)