Sleep in Space Environment
Abstract
Sleep deprivation on Earth may impair cognitive performance. As a result, poor mental alertness, attention, and vigilance may lead to fatal accidents. Lengthy space missions and prolonged exposure to the space environment may induce similar effects in space travelers. There is conflicting evidence whether humans in space can achieve optimal rest when the duration of sleep is decreased. Weightlessness in zero gravity reduces muscle exertion, compared to Earth, resulting in less physical fatigue which may require less hours of sleep. However, factors such as low-frequency noise, altered light-dark cycles, and cosmic radiation may pose substantial difficulty in maintaining sleep in space. Does sleep in space present a new medical challenge? If so, could typical pharmaceutical interventions such as psychoactives, antihistamines, and melatonin be used as treatment? The factors contributing to disrupted sleep in space and the possibility of ameliorating these factors with drug therapies need to be established. This chapter discusses the disruption of sleep cycles in space and conventional sedative-hypnotic and other drugs in managing sleep disorders in an unconventional cosmic environment.
- Publication:
-
Handbook of Space Pharmaceuticals
- Pub Date:
- 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1007/978-3-030-05526-4_33
- Bibcode:
- 2022hsp..book..469R