{"id":50636,"date":"2017-01-23T03:32:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T11:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=50636"},"modified":"2017-01-23T03:32:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T11:32:21","slug":"the-pillownauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/the-pillownauts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Case of the Pillownauts"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

\"sleepingiss_astronaut\"<\/a>Just because you\u2019re not an astronaut, that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t contribute to the space program. You don\u2019t even have to get out of bed. Meet the \u201cpillownauts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

LOST IN SPACE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we take it for granted that astronauts can function in the weightlessness of spaceflight, but at the dawn of the space age in the early 1960s, scientists weren\u2019t sure that was possible. Some experts feared that the shape of the human eye would become distorted in zero gravity, making it difficult for astronauts to see the gauges and controls they needed to operate their spacecraft. What about eating\u2014would astronauts be able swallow their food without the assistance of gravity? And even if they could, would their bodies be able to digest it? If not, the length of a spaceflight might be limited to the amount of time an astronaut could go without eating.<\/p>\n

These fears proved to be unfounded, but as the years passed and the duration of spaceflights increased from less than an hour to days, weeks, and eventually months, astronauts on longer missions began to experience physiological changes that were just as worrying to scientists. For each month they spent in weightlessness, astronauts lost as much as one percent of their bone density in the hips and other weight-bearing areas of their bodies, and as much as 3 percent of their muscle mass.<\/p>\n

RISKY BUSINESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the first Soviet cosmonauts to spend more than 200 days in space in the early 1980s were unable to walk or even catch a ball after returning to Earth. They eventually recovered, but their experience raised the alarming possibility that if a mission was long enough, such as a three-year trip to Mars and back, an astronaut\u2019s health might never recover. Computer models have predicted that astronauts on a mission to Mars could lose as much as half of their bone density, putting them at serious risk of bone fractures. They might land on Mars too fragile to function; if they broke a hip or some other bone on the red planet, they might die before they made it back home.<\/p>\n

For this reason, NASA and other space agencies have been studying the effects of weightlessness on human health since the 1960s, both to better understand the changes that human bodies go through, and to test the efficacy of drugs, diet, exercise equipment, and other \u201ccounter-measures\u201d in minimizing the deterioration. Much of this research has, of necessity, been conducted on Earth, where weightlessness is simulated in \u201cbed rest\u201d studies in which volunteers are confined to hospital beds 24 hours a day for as much as 120 days at a stretch. Many of the studies take place at NASA\u2019s Flight Research Analog Unit (FARU) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, about 50 miles from Mission Control in Houston.<\/p>\n

DOUGH-NAUTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Study volunteers, who\u2019ve become known as \u201cpillownauts,\u201d are typically paid $10 an hour for every waking hour that they participate in a study. That may not sound like much, but it adds up: Since the pillownauts are awake 16 hours a day, they can earn more than $19,000 in a 120-day study that also provides free room and board.<\/p>\n

And if you think getting paid $19,000 to lie around for months on end would appeal to a lot of people, you\u2019re right: It\u2019s not unheard of for a bed rest study to attract as many as 25,000 applicants. The pool is carefully screened to select the kinds of candidates that NASA wants to study, namely, people who, like the astronauts, are in excellent shape because they don\u2019t spend a lot of time lying around. Pillownauts are required to be in top physical condition, and must pass some of the same physicals that the astronauts take. Applicants must be nonsmokers between the ages of 24 and 55. They cannot be taking prescription drugs for any chronic medical condition. These and other criteria, including background checks, psychological screening, and even credit checks, help to winnow the 25,000 applicants down to the final 30 or so who are accepted for each study.<\/p>\n

\u2026AND NOW THE FINE PRINT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smoking bans and credit checks are just the beginning. Pillownauts aren\u2019t allowed to consume alcohol or caffeine during the study, nor can they add salt to the bland hospital food that they will live on for the entire length of the study. And they must eat all of the hospital food they are served\u2014no more and no less. That includes any and all condiments that are served with a meal. If a volunteer returns their salad with some of the dressing left in the plastic cup it came in, the cup will be returned to the volunteer so that they can slurp it down to the last drop. Unscheduled snacking isn\u2019t allowed. Nor, for that matter, are conjugal visits or naps outside of scheduled sleeping times. Pillownauts are awakened every morning at 6:00 a.m. and must remain awake until lights out at 10:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

THAT SINKING FEELING<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hospital beds used in bed rest studies aren\u2019t level like ordinary beds. If the study is designed to simulate lunar gravity, which is about one-sixth that of Earth, the bed will be tilted up at the head by 9.5 degrees, the angle at which the volunteer\u2019s body, when \u201cstanding\u201d in bed, supports one-sixth of its own weight.<\/p>\n

Even worse than the lunar beds are the ones used in the zero-gravity studies that simulate a flight to Mars. Those beds are tilted down at the head by about 6 degrees, so that the pillownauts\u2019 feet are 12 to 15 inches higher than their heads. This causes blood and other fluids to flow toward the head, as they do in zero gravity, instead of pooling in the feet like they do on Earth. In this position, watery eyes, runny noses, puffy faces, and swollen sinuses are common. So are headaches, dizziness, toothaches, and nausea, especially during the early days of the study, when the pillownauts\u2019 bodies are adjusting to this unfamiliar new position. Back pain is so common that pillownauts receive hour-long massages every other day for the length of the study. They\u2019re also given special support hose, which they wear in order to prevent blood clots from forming in their legs.<\/p>\n

GO WITH THE FLOW<\/strong><\/p>\n

When NASA says you can\u2019t get out of bed for 120 days, they mean it\u2014you can\u2019t get out of bed for 120 days:<\/p>\n