why were they serving soup to people in bed anyway?

September 14, 2015 12:40 PM

meet the man NASA paid $18,000 to lie in bed for 70 days straight
posted by and they trembled before her fury (38 comments total)

$10.71/hr doesn't really seem worth it
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:49 PM on September 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

"I wash myself with a rag on a stick."
posted by FJT at 12:52 PM on September 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

You'd have to pay me a lot more than $18,000 for that.
posted by tdismukes at 12:55 PM on September 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

They did have access to books and the internet, so not as horrible as it could be. Still, not something I would want to volunteer for.
posted by tavella at 1:04 PM on September 14, 2015

the volunteers who did the mars living experiments on the lava-fields in hawaii at least got to go outside every day (in their suits) and had camaraderie.. I wouldn't sign up for either of these..
posted by k5.user at 1:05 PM on September 14, 2015

long ago I worked in a lab that did shorter versions of these sorts of studies. since I worked there, I couldn't sign up, but a friend did. she said that being forced to stay in bed with your head slightly lower than your feet was quite unpleasant after the first day and wasn't worth the $. she was there for probably 5 days.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 1:07 PM on September 14, 2015

Three months at $18000 is a $72000 annual salary. Not a fortune, but nothing to sniff at, especially given that the qualifications seem to be "are you a human?" I wonder about the experimental design for mental effects, if any. The author makes no mention of a psychologist/psychiatrist being involved.
posted by axiom at 1:07 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

> $10.71/hr doesn't really seem worth it

So I see how you're calculating that, but that includes hours he would have been sleeping. I think the better way to view it is that he earned $257.14/day, or $93,857.14 per year. Not bad. Not enough to make me want to do the study, but not bad.
posted by noneuclidean at 1:10 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Having spent an almost equivalent time in bed ill, I cannot imagine doing this while being fully. At least when you're sick, if you're sick enough to be stuck in bed for two months, you're barely conscious and usually well drugged. Ugh, no, nope, no way.
posted by epanalepsis at 1:11 PM on September 14, 2015

What was the point of this study? I don't think the FPP says--what were they trying to learn?
posted by epanalepsis at 1:14 PM on September 14, 2015

> What was the point of this study? I don't think the FPP says--what were they trying to learn?

From the second link: "...to learn more about how human bone and muscle might deteriorate in space."

Also, I see he was there for 108 days, and just 70 were while he was in bed. So make that $60,833/year.
posted by noneuclidean at 1:17 PM on September 14, 2015

What was the point of this study? I don't think the FPP says--what were they trying to learn?

How much time and effort people would spend on the math of whether $18K was worth it.
posted by Etrigan at 1:17 PM on September 14, 2015 [28 favorites]

If these are similar to the studies Mary Roach wrote about in the fantastic book Packing for Mars, I think they are concerned about the effects of zero-gravity on bone health over the long term. It's hard to simulate that on earth, obviously, but having people on bedrest for long periods of time mimics what happens when you don't have constant bone remodeling as an effect of microtrauma. Because floating in space!
posted by ChuraChura at 1:18 PM on September 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

Note that the experiment is also all expenses paid. So if you want a full equivalent income, include the cost of meals, rent and utilities.
posted by happyroach at 1:19 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also, I see he was there for 108 days, and just 70 were while he was in bed. So make that $60,833/year.

I missed the 'pre' and 'post' periods too, and if you discount the strict 8hrs a day sleeping schedule (not sure I agree with that, since he wasn't allow to leave and sleep in his own bed), you only get 9.25/hr, that's actually much worse. And 60k/yr would be at a rate of 18hrs a day for 365 days? Ouch. Cmon, NASA, where's the living wage?

How much time and effort people would spend on the math of whether $18K was worth it.

At least 2 posts worth.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:24 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I assume shower time was also masturbation time.

I don't know that you could pay me enough to do this and even if I agreed I would surely crack after 30 hours or so.
posted by bondcliff at 1:24 PM on September 14, 2015

The easiest way to simulate physiological effects of weightlessness is to put someone on bed rest with the bed at a 6 degree angle (foot of the bed elevated). They also do this with lab mice by suspending them by their tails. Or at least used to. I haven't been around such things in a long while.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 1:25 PM on September 14, 2015

So if you want a full equivalent income, include the cost of meals, rent and utilities.

Meals, sure, but did he move out of his apartment or house or whatever?

(I've had this same argument roughly a billion times about how much we were "really" making when on military deployment.)
posted by Etrigan at 1:25 PM on September 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

What was the point of this study? I don't think the FPP says--what were they trying to learn?

Iwanicki was a subject for CFT 70 Countermeasure and Functional Testing in Head-Down Tilt Bed Rest, run by JSC's Flight Analogs Project.

NASA scientists are working to find ways to keep astronauts healthier and safer when they spend a long time in space. Head down bed rest is a good way to mimic a person traveling in space without gravity.

Head-down bed rest helps researchers study people on earth in a way that causes some of the changes the body goes through while traveling in space without gravity. This study will show how much your body, tilted down slightly with head down and feet up, for 70 days, 24-hours a day, without getting out of bed, except for limited times for specific tests, is like an astronaut’s body during the weightlessness of space flight. Watching you will help scientists learn how an astronaut’s body will change in weightlessness during space flight in the future.

A conference paper on NTRS further specifies the studies that were part of CFT 70:

• Physiological Factors Contributing to Post Flight Changes in Functional Performance. J. Bloomberg, NASA
• Integrated Resistance and Aerobic Training Study. L. Ploutz-Snyder, USRA
• Testosterone Supplementation as a Countermeasure Against Musculoskeletal losses during Space Exploration. R. Urban, University of Texas Medical Branch
• Effects of Retronasal Smelling, Variety and Choice on Appetite & Satiety. J. Hunter, Cornell University
• AD ASTRA: Automated Detection of Attitudes and States through Transaction Recordings Analysis. C. Miller, Smart Information Flow Technologies, LLC
• Bed Rest as a Spaceflight Analog to Study Neuro-cognitive Changes: Extent, Longevity, and Neural Bases. R. Seidler, University of Michigan

posted by zamboni at 1:26 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I was on bed rest when I was pregnant and it was terrible but, given that, I know that was I still a broke wingnut in my 20s, I totally would have been all over this study. Read in bed all day? Yes.
posted by latkes at 1:28 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I remember years ago someone won a contest where they spent like a month riding a roller coaster. I think they got five minute pee breaks every couple of hours but other than that they slept and ate while riding the coaster. I don't remember how much they won but I do remember breaking it down by the hour and it was less than minimum wage.

I tried to explain this to a friend but she was like "Yeah, but they didn't have to DO anything! They just sat there!"

Well, no...
posted by bondcliff at 1:31 PM on September 14, 2015

I had a spinal tap once and it leaked, or something, so I had this weird reaction where I felt absolutely fine laying down in bed but had debilitating headaches and nausea if I sat up. So I couldn't sit up even though I felt fine. Sheer misery. I was ready to swear off pacifism in half a day. No way could I do this and remain sane.
posted by headnsouth at 1:53 PM on September 14, 2015

I remember years ago someone won a contest where they spent like a month riding a roller coaster. I think they got five minute pee breaks every couple of hours but other than that they slept and ate while riding the coaster.

Was this it? All they got were $16,000 Jeep Wranglers, but they at least got to sleep each night "on a platform near the coaster. "
posted by cosmic.osmo at 2:04 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ugh, I was on bedrest for four months when I was pregnant. By week two, I was losing my mind, and I was at least allowed to prop up at a 45 degree angle. Just reading about his experience is giving me agita.
posted by headspace at 2:12 PM on September 14, 2015

The Pillownaut blogged about her experience doing a similar study back in 2008. It was really interesting to read. She also seemed to have a lot more social interaction with the other people in the study than this guy did.
posted by ilovewinter at 2:51 PM on September 14, 2015

I'm really interested in the body composition changes and how his weight didn't change at all. If you just lie down without exercising for 70 days and lower your caloric intake to compensate for extremely low physical activity, I assume your muscles will atrophy quite a bit. Wouldn't that cause you to lose weight?
posted by pravit at 3:14 PM on September 14, 2015

I just experienced something like this back in March-May due to a spontaneous CSF leak. Had to be absolutely flat on my back (preferably tilted head down with feet up, but I didn't have a bed that could do that), only getting up for bathroom breaks, and even those under 5 minutes max. I literally couldn't sit up/be upright, but because my brain was so foggy due to CSF loss/whatever, I also couldn't read or follow TV programs or lengthy conversations. So I spent all that time staring at the ceiling and listening to podcasts. Hours and hours of podcasts. Occasional puzzle games on my phone, but nothing involving skill or concentration. I felt totally trapped in my foggy head, and it was pretty awful—mostly because of the pain and scariness of the situation, and the lack of help w house and kids—but if I was 100% healthy and it was just Netflix, internet, writing time? I don't know.

(Also in my case, between not moving/exercising, eating more than I did before, and taking certain medications, I gained 15 pounds.)
posted by mothershock at 3:18 PM on September 14, 2015

I assume shower time was also masturbation time.

I was wondering about the earwax build-up over the 70 days.
posted by Wordshore at 3:28 PM on September 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

I give myself three days, tops, before the uncontrollable screaming began. Even for 18K, even for NASA, even for Science!.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:03 PM on September 14, 2015

I assume shower time was also masturbation time.

I was wondering about the earwax build-up over the 70 days.

Is... is that what we're calling it these days? So much more makes sense now.
posted by Etrigan at 5:08 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Shit, the most I ever did for a medical study was an overnight with some fasting and then they took a tiny piece of leg muscle! My biggest complaint was that they didn't let me see them doing the biopsy. They did have cable tv and better food than I was eating at my shitty dorm though.

I can't imagine doing what this guy did, I would have gone completely bonkers by day 3.
posted by Ferreous at 5:24 PM on September 14, 2015

I knew this guy once who told me he was "going to the NIH for a couple months to do some research." I fancy myself a bit of an armchair scientist so I asked him some detailed questions. Eventually it came out that he was in fact going to be a guinea pig in a long term research experiment like this.
posted by miyabo at 5:39 PM on September 14, 2015

I have a friend who did this, or at least tried to. He was the laziest dude we knew, in a totally affable way. And he wanted to buy a motorcycle. They had to cut him from the project after a week or two because the special socks he had to wear were causing some sort of circulation issue.

But anyway, this seemed to be running pretty regularly down here in Houston for a while.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 6:01 PM on September 14, 2015

14 hours.


Not that I'd necessarily want to get up, just to have the option.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:18 PM on September 14, 2015

You'd have to pay me a lot more than $18,000 for that.
posted by tdismukes at 12:55 PM on September 14 [4 favorites +] [!]

I would have absolutely done this for $18,000.
posted by jayder at 6:31 PM on September 14, 2015

Wait. I could get paid for this? Can I smoke?
posted by sexyrobot at 7:34 PM on September 14, 2015

emptythought at 18: So uh, yea, money. What about masturbation?

...weed?

emptythought now: Oh god, life is so short. i spent so many years laying around doing nothing because of depression and lazyness. i don't even know if anyone could pay me enough to do this. It would have to be like, an entire years pay at a HIGH salary.
posted by emptythought at 11:35 PM on September 14, 2015

Was this it? All they got were $16,000 Jeep Wranglers, but they at least got to sleep each night "on a platform near the coaster. "

That's probably it. The timeframe is correct. I guess I mis-remembered the sleeping and eating part but still... 60 days spent on a roller coaster for... a Jeep? No fucking way.
posted by bondcliff at 6:02 AM on September 15, 2015