The Way Astronauts Sleep Is Out of This World
With no normal night and day, little room and nearly zero gravity, space stations aren't the best places to get a good night's rest. So how do astronauts get any sleep?
Whether in a shuttle or on the space station, one of the biggest challenges astronauts have when trying to sleep is being weightless. There's no gravity pulling them down, so they can't just lie down in a bed!
To stop themselves from floating around and hitting things, astronauts have to sleep in sleeping bags that are tied to a seat or to the wall.
But it's still strange, says astronaut Scott Kelly, who has spent 520 days in space. He told the magazine Travel & Leisure in 2021 that he used to attach a pillow to his head just to feel more like he was in a normal bed.
Another challenge is that astronauts don't get normal days and nights. When astronauts are on the International Space Station (ISS), they travel around the Earth once every 90 minutes, meaning they see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.
"The sun in space is really bright," says Kelly. He said he would always wear an eye mask to sleep, because the sun would still come through the window shades on the ISS.
And then there are the small spaces.
Astronauts sleep in a box the size of a telephone booth on the ISS. And in a shuttle, there aren't even private boxes. "You all sleep kind of together, wherever," Kelly explains.
NASA schedules 8.5 hours a day for astronauts to sleep — but on average, they only sleep for around 6 hours.
Not getting enough sleep is very dangerous for astronauts — and for people on Earth, too. It can increase stress and lead to poor thinking, among other problems.
