Sleeping like an astronaut – taking tips from NASA *

25th February 2019 Lisa 34 Comments

AD | One of Flora’s all-time favourite films (and mine too) is WALL-E. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out, it’s a Pixar classic, an animated love story with an ecological message too. WALL-E is a lonely little clean up robot on a ruined, uninhabited and rubbish-filled Earth in 2105. He falls in love with EVE, the robot probe who’s sent down to Earth from the Axiom spaceship to search for possible signs of life.

Living, eating, and even sleeping in space is not a choice in 2105, it’s a necessity for mankind. As someone who frequently struggles to get a good night’s sleep, I thought it would be interesting to see how an astronaut manages with sleeping in space. With both National Bed Month and World Sleep Day just around the corner, could I pick up any sleep tips from them?

Living in the stars

Astronauts seem to have very busy lives and each 12-hour working day is carefully planned by mission control centres in Houston or Moscow. Much of the crew’s time is spent preparing and carrying out scientific and experiments. But the International Space Station is like a large, complicated house that needs constant care and attention. Would you believe that astronauts are also in charge of cleaning and repairs? I mean, wherever do they stash their feather dusters and tool kits? I bet that’s a question Tim Peake was never asked…

They get three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and drinks and snacks are always available. They also spend at least two hours each day exercising to stay fit, healthy, and prevent bone and muscle loss. Otherwise they’d all look like the Axiom residents in WALL-E.

Sleeping in the stars

When astronauts aren’t eating, cleaning, repairing, or carrying out their experiments and research, of course they’re sleeping. However, in space everything is weightless. So they need to attach their sleeping bags to a wall or a ceiling otherwise they’d float around and bump into something! It’s important that sleeping quarters are well ventilated too, to prevent astronauts waking up oxygen-deprived in a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide.

With 16 sunsets and sunrises every 24 hours on the ISS, astronauts are usually scheduled for eight hours of sleep at the end of each mission day. With eyeshades or pull down shutters over the windows to keep out the sunlight while they are sleeping. Just imagine the havoc that plays with your body’s circadian rhythm, and the confusion of never knowing whether it’s morning or evening.

NASA does help though, they provide Sleep Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) psychological support for astronauts before, during and after flight to help their brains transition into sleep mode. Herbal teas are also on offer and, if all else fails, they can choose to take a melatonin supplement to regulate sleep. (Melatonin, a naturally produced hormone in the human body, is a popular over-the-counter sleep aid).

Sleeping on Earth

Somewhat to my surprise, I think there are some ideas I can absorb from astronauts. Tips such a dark, ventilated environment, and over the counter sleep aids are all things I’ve tried. What I haven’t tried is a sleep schedule though. Usually I go to bed when I’m tired (anywhere between 11.00pm and 12.00am) and read until my eyes are closing. Then I wake up around 3.00am and stay awake for couple of hours, before drifting off again until the alarm shrieks into life at 7.00am.

I know I’m not alone in this though, as many of my friends struggle with sleep too. Whether it’s a stressful day, a pulled muscle, or an aching back, a bad night’s sleep definitely leads to a lack of positive wellbeing. Most of us know how important a good quality mattress is to support a good night’s sleep. Experts also recommend replacing your mattress every ten years or so. Here’s where NASA might be able to help me again, as our current one is definitely nearing the end of its life. Memory foam mattresses aren’t new but ones that have been developed with NASA technology are certainly ones to look into.

A new NASA-inspired mattress

TEMPUR® * was first created by NASA in the 1970s to cushion astronauts during lift-off as they journeyed into space. When you think about the tremendous forces behind a rocket launch, it’s no wonder that something to evenly distribute weight and pressure was (and still is) a must. Today, after much research and development, the very same material lies at the core of all TEMPUR® mattresses and pillows. And the company is rightly proud that theirs is still the only mattress product recognised by NASA and certified by the Space Foundation.

As it happens, Alan already has a TEMPUR® pillow because he suffers from an occasional stiff neck, a legacy from a previous job. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so they say, or in Alan’s case, sleeping. He says the pillow works very well for him although I find it a little too firm for me. But TEMPUR® offer a range of four different mattresses to choose from, which conform to individual body weight and warmth for personalised pressure relief and support. So I’m sure one of those would be perfect for us in due course. And this time we’ll make sure we try them out in our local store first (ignoring all strange looks from other customers) rather than just relying on online reviews.