Want to Sleep During Quarantine? Do It Like an Astronaut!

Greetings from my couch to yours! As I prepare this episode, I'm in my sixth week of sheltering in place. Like many people around the world, it's also my first experience with staying at home for so long. If you're also feeling self-quarantine cabin fever, you're not alone. (Well, maybe you are, but not in spirit!) Most of us are feeling the strain of social isolation and physical confinement.

Part of the isolation package is sleep disruption. I've heard from more than a few people that they've developed insomnia, feel tired all the time, or have been having more nightmares than usual. My sleep health provider colleagues have received record numbers of calls.

RELATED: 5 Steps to Help You Overcome Nightmares

How do we deal with sleep problems in these unprecedented circumstances? Even most sleep scientists have never specifically studied the consequences of prolonged isolation and confinement, much less experienced it.

But you know who has? Astronauts!

The Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a bold and unique experiment in 2011. Six astronauts of diverse nationality and cultural backgrounds were confined together for 520 days in an environment simulating the inside of a spacecraft. Why 520 days? That’s how long it would take to complete a trip to Mars and back. The crew experienced a totally immersive simulation of what a Mars mission would entail. The scientists wanted to see how confinement and isolation would affect the astronauts’ performance, psychological well-being, and of course, sleep.

Most of us won’t be going to Mars any time soon, but perhaps we can learn a thing or two about keeping sleep on track during a less intense version of confinement. 

1. Keep a consistent schedule

Take it from Scott Kelly, a retired astronaut who spent a year in the International Space Station. The first piece of advice he has for those living in isolation and confinement is to follow a schedule.

And there is science to back him up—schedules tend to falter during confinement. The 520-day Mars mission experiment found that the majority of the six-person crew, all of whom were healthy and physically fit before the hatch closed, experienced some degree of sleep disturbance. Why? One reason scientists suspect is...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips