Study Finds That Astronauts Are Severely Sleep Deprived

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."

Comments

Re:how dark can it be on the ISS?

[WillgasM]

They sleep in little padded pods. I'm pretty sure they can go pitch black.

Want male astronauts to sleep? Get 'em laid.

[leftie]

Everyove knows how fast men fall asleep after they have taken care of themselves.

Re:how dark can it be on the ISS?

[MachDelta]

Parent is probably referring to Cosmic ray visual phenomena