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

Would YOU be able to sleep in space??

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd want to soak up every minute of it. Maybe they should look into the mechanism called: "It's frickin awesome."

Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space??

[amicusNYCL]

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??

[thisisauniqueid]

I know Yi So-Yeon, the first Korean astronaut. She said she hated space. She wanted to throw up the whole time, and felt like her head was going to explode. (Both of these symptoms are caused by gravity not pulling things downwards, as well as the vestibular system being screwed up.)

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.

Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space??

[StikyPad]

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??

[sillybilly]

Yeah lack space creates lack of privacy and allows for no masturbation, or quick and easy disposal of the expelled material, so it's not done for months, or for the entire length of the mission, unless maybe for females, that can use covert techniques like pedaling an old sewing machine and holding their thighs tight in just the right way, and then it can get addictive. But for both It's easy to go for months and months without orgasms if you have to, such as a serious business space station situation - though you might get wet dreams if you're near 14-21 as a male, though not when much older, say over 35, spontaneously if you don't masturbate for like 2-3 months, and they are a big mess to wake up to, even though you feel like you never wanted to leave the dream it was so freaking awesome, like why can't I have more dreams like that, til you wake up and realize maybe that would not be a good idea. Lack of space, and congestion, above all, is the biggest stress factor in outer space, because of the very small size of the space modules. It's expensive to get a spacious auditorium that echoes, or mansion up there, at least from Earth, though it may be a lot cheaper from Moon based materials. When I was asked in first grade what I wanna become when I grow up, I said astronaut. But I changed my mind since then, and I'd be happy living like Immanuel Kant, who never left his home town or traveled anywhere, but he still lived a happy life, and entertained guests from all over the world, so it's like he took mental trips with them. That's what media today is, I can watch a jungle video, or a Moon landing video, without people saying "you had to be there to understand." And get bitten by the mosquitoes? I beg to differ. I can watch the face of a person orgasming and I don't have to be that person to know how that person feels. You don't always have to be there, it's sometimes enough to just watch, from a distance. If they tried to make me be an astronaut, I'd be constantly bitchin about lack of space, lack of roominess, and they'd keep telling me to suck it up, space is too expensive in space, there is not enough of it, and at 200 lbs I'd be already more expensive to take into orbit than a 90 lb 5' 0" ft person, who can push the buttons and follow instructions just as well or even better, coming directly from Houston.

Re:Would YOU be able to sleep in space??

[reverseengineer]

I read the Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal 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

[Armstrong - "(The quality of the rest) was poor in my case."]

[Aldrin - "I'd say the same thing."]

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.")

Sleeping patterns?

[Carnildo]

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.

Re:how dark can it be on the ISS?

[Pliny]

With the exception of the cosmic rays shooting through their eyes....

Re:how dark can it be on the ISS?

[MachDelta]

Parent is probably referring to Cosmic ray visual phenomena

Re:how dark can it be on the ISS?

[sillybilly]

I agree that sensory deprivation must be the cause of sleeplessness for the astronauts. I for one have a hard time sleeping without any covers, no matter how hot the weather is, and I may be sweating, but 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, as a thicker sleeping bag material, except for the heat part, so I do use the thin sheets when I have to, but if in any way bearable, even if very hot, I go for the sleeping bag material. Modern camping sleeping bags from Walmart are nice in that you can wash and dry them very fast, and they take full strength dose of bleach in the washer, and do not degrade, unlike colored traditional linen or even white linen that yellow after prolonged numerous bleachings, plus they are too heavy, and not soft, fluffy enough. Old school goose feather packed fluffy beddings are very thick (and for that they may cause sweating in the summer but work in extreme winter without stove heat in single layer as opposed to Walmart sleeping bags needing to be doubled or tripled up to build the thickness), but harder to wash, bleach and dry.

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.