Body Clocks 'Hinder' Space Travel

[zavvy]

<b>Body Clocks 'Hinder' Space Travel</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />Russell Foster's team at Imperial College London, UK, is looking at how astronauts would cope away from Earth. <br /><br />Foster says our "circadian rhythm is crucial. It stops everything happening at once and co-ordinates the right things to happen at the right time". <br /><br />Whilst the human body is used to a 24-hour cycle, the day on Mars is an extra 39 minutes long, which could prove difficult for humans to adapt to. <br /><br />The Imperial researchers are working in conjunction with the US National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and have been investigating the impact space travel has on human sleep behaviour. <br /><br />As the NSBRI's website puts it, "the success of human spaceflight depends on astronauts remaining alert while operating highly complex, state-of-the-art equipment. A crucial factor of mission success is getting enough sleep". <br /><br />Sleep deprivation <br /><br />Space is the most extreme shift-working environment. The crews on space missions sleep poorly, with astronauts averaging about two hours per night less sleep than they normally experience on Earth. <br /><br />Previous research into nightshift workers has shown disrupted sleep patterns can lead to various health problems and diminished performance. For example, such workers are at a 50% higher risk of a car crash at three in the morning after four days of nightshifts. <br /><br />Professor Foster commented at the recent BA annual Festival of Science in Exeter: "While many of the technical difficulties of space travel are well documented, there has been less research on the medical and health-related problems astronauts may encounter. <br /><br />"The human body is used to a 24-hour cycle, which may prove difficult to regulate in space." <br /><br />Research has shown the average human body clock has a period of 24 hours and 11 minutes, whi

 

[pizzaguy]

First of all, what hinders a trip to Mars is the TRIP itself. Major hurdles will have to be overcome.<br /><br />Once we get there (which I doubt will happen in the lifetime of anyone living), the body clock is not a problem. I have a neighbor who works for Delta Airlines on 3rd shift - in the shop maintaining the planes. He switches between "night time work mode" and "off duty daytime mode" twice a week. Doesn't seem to be a problem.<br /><br />39 minutes of difference is nothing to worry about - these guys sound like any number of know-it-alls from the past:<br />the "coffee will kill you", the "aspertame will kill you", or any number of alarmists. <br /><br />I should check the link again, I wonder what suckers they got their research money from. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1"><em>Note to Dr. Henry:  The testosterone shots are working!</em></font> </div>

 

[zavvy]

An interesting read nonetheless... <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[bobvanx]

I had ocassion to exchange emails with a sleep researcher a couple years back. Our exchange led her to investigate late risers verus early birds, and she discovered that late risers get their restorative sleep in the couple of hours at the end of sleep, and early risers get their good sleep shortly after their head hits the pillow.<br /><br />Why this matters for space travel to Mars, is late risers have an advantage for adapting to the Martian day. They like to stay up late and sleep in. 40 minutes doesn't sound like much, but ask the folks at JPL how much fun it was living on Mars time.

 

[nacnud]

I'm sure that if it wasn't for the normal world impinging on those on mars time everything would have been fine. For example if you were to go live in a cave your body clock would drift off the 24hr clock quite rapidly.<br /><br />I know all about this at the mo as I'm trying to finish my masters, as I don't have to do anything other than self directed study normal time seems to have evaporated. I seem to have settled on a roughly 30hr 'day' which is all a bit strange really <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br />

 

[JonClarke]

Seeing that people can cope with much bigger disturbances to circadian rhythms in terrestrial polar bases than people would get on mars (except at the Martian poles) this is hardly a make or break issue. It is an interesting and important area of research none the less.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[bobvanx]

>settled on a roughly 30hr 'day'<br /><br />heh<br /><br />I set up one semester in which I lived at a 30 hour cycle. I also broke my sleep times into a 6 and 4 hour chunk per cycle. I reasoned that if I could find my optimal rhythm, that I'd get better grades.<br /><br />It worked out. I didn't mind eating breakfast for dinner, or dinner for breakfast, and I slept through any disturbance. Including my Thursday afternoon class, which landed right in the middle of one of my 6-hour sleeps. So I took an incomplete on that, but all my other classes I earned excellent grades.<br /><br />How cool to find someone else who can operate on a 30 hour day!