Sleeping In Space - Insomnia's Final Frontier?

Sleeping in space is, quite possibly, one of the least glamorous parts of the entire astronaut experience. It’s rarely shown in space movies, unless the sleep leads to some kind of attack from alien baddies. Except that how to allow astronauts to sleep in orbit is quite possibly one of the more difficult things to consider about space travel.

Think about it: How do you train for something like that? Sleeping in space is completely unlike sleeping in any other scenario known to humankind. In addition, you can’t re-create those conditions on Earth. After all, you have to put an airplane into free fall to duplicate a zero-gravity environment. Not exactly a calming vibe to let you drift off.

On the other hand, think about all the cool advantages. For example, you don’t sleep on a lumpy mattress – there is no mattress. Then again, there’s no cool side of the pillow; you don’t need a pillow when you’re sleeping in space. But consider this: On the International Space Station, there’s another sunrise every 90 minutes. Just imagine what that does to your circadian rhythms.

On this week’s episode of The Snooze Button podcast, we talk to Astronaut Nicole Stott. In particular, we’re fascinated by the answer to the question, “How did you possibly get any sleep the night before you became just the 10th woman in history to walk in space?!”

Once we get Nicole’s secret to space sleep, as we’ve done with our other celebrity guests, we pass the science of Nicole’s “sleep hack” through the scientific filter of Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona.

This interview was recorded just hours after the latest mission to Mars saw us flying a helicopter out there, and controlling it from here. And we get into far more about the final frontier than just a good night’s sleep.

Linkapalooza

Nicole Stott on Twitter

Nicole’s amazing book, Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet―And Our Mission to Protect It (Affiliate link)

A look at Inspiration4, a groundbreaking program from NASA in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

The Space for Art Foundation homepage

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