Stay in Bed for a Month--and Get Paid

Here’s a job you can take lying down.

NASA is looking for a few good men and women to test the rigors of bed rest. Thirty days of bed rest. Meals included. Plus $11 an hour.

In the first episode, volunteers will be locked into special facilities at NASA’s Ames Research Center, near San Francisco. They will spend 45 days in the program, with 30 consecutive days spent in bed, tilted slightly head-down.

So it is, in a sense, a no-sweat job. The chief drawbacks might be persistent boredom and lack of activity.

The idea is to test people’s responses to long-duration inactivity, in preparation for sending astronauts into space on long missions. Exercise tests will be given before and after the 30-day period of idleness, and a few volunteers will even exercise in bed. There will be normal entertainment: television, radio, cards, board games, etc.

“Head-down bed rest simulates weightlessness and induces many of the physiological changes similar to those seen in spaceflight,” said Chris Moore, manager of the testing project at Ames. The changes volunteers might expect include weakening of the heart and circulatory system, loss of muscle tone, reduced bone strength and changes in fluid balance in the body.

The study is to begin in January. Needed are 10 healthy men and women from the ages of 25 to 55 who are nonsmokers and do not engage in vigorous exercise. They should also be free of any hints of previous heart disease, hernia or bone and muscle disorders. The women should not be pregnant.

Also, no booze, no caffeine, no nipping out to Starbucks. And, said Ann Hutchison, a representative at the Ames center, participants cannot “telecommute.” You have to be there.