Is there anything worse than being woken up abruptly by the sharp trills of an alarm clock?
If parting with your bed every morning is the hardest part of your day then rejoice, NASA is offering a job where all you do is lie down.
You could be paid £14,000 to stay in bed for the space agency’s Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study, which is studying the effect of weightlessness on the human body.
Before you rush to apply though, the requirements of the study sound pretty brutal.
Everything you do will have to be done while lying down, including showering and using the toilet. Even the most passionate sleepers might get tired of exclusively lying for 60 days.
If you don’t mind being on bed rest for the duration, avoiding the world, and being put on a basic diet, then cool, go for it.
But you’ll also need a strong stomach as you’ll be submerged in a ‘human centrifuge’, which generates artificial gravity and distributes fluids back into the body. It’s said to make you pretty nauseous.
‘A stay in space, in weightlessness, changes the body,’ NASA explained on the website. ‘The reduced physical stress leads to the breakdown of muscles and bones.
‘In addition, the body fluids shift towards the head. The same is observed in people who lie in bed for a long time.
‘Therefore, the study simulates the condition in space with bed rest. In order to simulate conditions as similar as possible in space, the subjects have to lie with the head 6° down.
‘The results of the study help scientists develop more effective countermeasures or preventive measures so that astronauts on the space station do not have to spend most of their day doing sports.’
Researchers explained that participants will have to be on a standardised diet too with enough fluids and nutrients to make sure you’re healthy and do not put any weight on.
Could you handle all of that for £14k?
If so, you’ll have to be a healthy female between the ages of 24 and 55. The study kicks off in September 2019 in Cologne, Germany. You can apply here.