Sleep as the new medical frontier: maintaining proper sleep is critical in space missions

Publication date: Available online 20 January 2016 Source:Sleep Science Author(s): Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal, Alain A. Gonfalone Space agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the China National Space Administration, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Indian Space Research Organization are in the forefront of aerospace research, whatever their local political agendas may be. Before humans ventured into space, there was an obvious question if sleep was feasible at all in the microgravity environment of outer space. It is now known that, in fact, space travelers can sleep once they leave the pull of the earth’s gravity, but that the sleep they do get is not completely refreshing and that the associated sleep disturbances can be elaborate and variable. The scientific literature now shows that according to astronauts’ subjective reports, sleep durations in space are shorter than on earth and that there is an increased incidence of disturbed sleep. Both subjective and objective sleep recordings carried out various missions including the Skylab missions, space shuttle missions, and Mir missions all point to the conclusion that, compared to sleep on earth, the duration in human sleep in space is shorter, averaging about six hours. In the new frontier of space exploration one of the great problems to be solved relates to sleep. Numerous ׳earthly׳ ex...
Source: Sleep Science - Category: Sleep Medicine Source Type: research