Profiles & Overviews | Flight Hardware | Links

Key Research Questions

• What are the effects of the space environment on sleep, sleep cycles, or the generation, expression, and entrainment of metabolic, endocrine, and/or behavioral circadian rhythms? Of these effects, which result from altered gravity and which result from other environmental factors?
• What are the optimal environmental conditions for ensuring synchronization of circadian rhythms in space, and what are the most appropriate work-rest schedules for ensuring optimal health and performance?
• What are the effects of space-induced alterations in circadian rhythms on human health and performance? What are the times for peak performance?
• What are the effects of space flight on thermoregulation processes and heat exchange?
• What environmental conditions of space flight influence temperature regulation?
• How are changes in body temperature or its regulation correlated with metabolic rate and energy expenditure?

Experiment/Mission Information

Experiment Information from the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive

Source: NASA Life Sciences Data Archive   Format: HTML

Description: This link to the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive provides a list of relevant descriptions of flight experiments investigating Chronobiology. (Posted on 10/00)

Mission Information from the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive

Source: NASA Life Sciences Data Archive   Format: HTML      

Description: This link to the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive provides a list of relevant descriptions of space flight missions that carried experiments investigating Chronobiology. (Posted on 10/00)

Profiles & Overviews

Sleep and Chronobiology

Source: G. Kim Frisk, University of California, San Diego and Charles. A. Fuller, University of California, Davis   Format: PDF
Download the file (132 kb)

Description: Current research in sleep and chronobiology was presented at the NASA Bioastronautics Investigators Workshop in 2001. Presentation summaries, compiled in this document, highlight results of various studies related to why sleep is disrupted, how much sleep is necessary, and what can be done to ensure good sleep. (Posted on 07/04)

Flight Hardware

Circadian Periodicity Experiment (CPE) Package

Source: NASA
Format: PDF
Download the file (76 kb)

Description: The Circadian Periodicity Experiment (CPE) Package combined two life support systems to study circadian rhythms in pocket mice and vinegar gnats on the Skylab 3 mission. (Excerpt from Life into Space 1965-1990) (Posted on 12/00)

Circadian Rhythm Experiment Hardware

Source: NASA
Format: PDF
Download the file (64 kb)

Description: The Circadian Rhythm Experiment Hardware, designed for studies on rhesus monkeys, flew on the Soviet/Russian Cosmos Biosatellite missions. (Excerpt from Life into Space 1965-1990) (Posted on 12/00)

Cosmos 2229 Circadian Rhythm/Temperature Hardware

Source: NASA
Format: PDF
Download the file (84 kb)

Description: The Cosmos 2229 Circadian Rhythm/Temperature Hardware, flown on the Bion 10/Cosmos 2229 mission, recorded a variety of physiological data on rhesus monkeys. (Excerpt from Life into Space 1991-1998) (Posted on 01/01)

Links

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National Space Biomedical Research Institute
This site details the NSBRI's research projects in the field of human performance factors, sleep, and chronobiology.