Warning: A full G will kill you

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of joe@...

> Or, maybe you'd get benefits from sleeping in 1 G. I can imagine
> centrifugal sleeping quarters, just big enough to fit a number of
> bunks. This may or may not work; on the downside, your horizontal,
> which mimics some of the effects of microgravity; but on the other
> hand, it's a whole eight hours a day.

I'd expect the former to be more significant than the latter, and thus
wouldn't anticipate much gain in this area. (But still, there are NASA
scientists working on this very idea.) As you correctly point out, bed
rest produces many of the same physiological effects as microgravity.
Earthbound NASA experiments in this area have lead to the waggish
comment that NASA has paid people money to lay around in bed all day.

> Of course, it may be moot. I often toss and turn at night, and think
> how much more comfortable sleeping would be in reduced gravity. It's
> quite possible that if there were 1 G sleeping quarters, nobody would
> want to use them, when there's a comfy 1/6 G couch right in the living
> room.

One possible benefit of sleeping in low or 0 G might be that one could
hold one's partner most of the night without having an arm go numb!

Regards,

Mike Combs