When you get a job, you most certainly know that you and your bed will not be friends as much as you want to. There is the alarm clock that will jealously yank you out of your bed, and if not that you know you have a boss at work monitoring how late you come; just waiting for you to give him/her an excuse to fire your a$$.
However, there is a job offer from a group of French Scientists at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology located near Toulouse, France, that wants you to sleep on the job. And I don’t mean figuratively, this job description and roles involves you and a bed, where you get to sleep in; well sleep all day every day for two months.
To be clear, the job description wants you to lie flat on your back an uninterrupted for 60 days. After that, you will undergo some tests over the span of four weeks. You will get half of the money before the tests and the other half two months from the time you completed your bed rest.
The job specifications say the researchers are looking for 24 males, who don’t smoke, are between the age of 20 and 45, and in top-notch health. The candidates are also required to be fit and sporty (active lifestyle) with a BMI of 22 – 27. The researchers want to observe how the study affects people who typically are active.
The study aims at replicating the gravity conditions inside the International Space Station. On the surface lying around, doing nothing seems like the easiest thing on Earth, but the researchers warn that weightlessness could be a challenging experience than most people imagine.
At the first stages of the test, the participants will conduct all their daily activities while still lying in their beds. All the while their torso will be inclined at -6 degree angle with the position of the head lower than their feet. The activities will include eating and going to the bathroom, all of which must be done with at least one shoulder touching the bed or the stretcher.
It is important to note that weightlessness has an impact on the human physiology. The human body process like blood circulation, walking, and muscle support is fashioned subject to the Earth’s gravity.
That is to say; the participants will experience what astronauts on the ISS feel. By not getting out of bed for two months, the volunteers will experience some muscle deterioration, reduced bone density, and weakened immunity. It is also possible the toll on the cardiovascular system will be so intense that it will not be able to function the same as before when normal gravity conditions are returned. It is for such reasons that the participants will be kept under close monitoring two weeks after the end of the two-month bed rest.