Cosmic Sheep Counting Complications During Mission IV

Clifford Hall, Room 210

The Lunar Mars Analog Habitat (LMAH) missions serve the purpose of providing valuable information for human adaptation to restricted living space conditions. Among the studied effects of these conditions and associated activities have been the sleep cycles of the crew members. Crewmembers from the 30-day Mission III experienced changes in their circadian rhythm, where the sleep start time shifted to the 0300 – 0400 hour time range after Day 201. Participants in Mission IV experienced similar symptoms with later sleep start and wakeup times. This was shown with one crewmember monitoring his sleep times using his personal Samsung S2™ smartwatch. The data obtained during the mission for this non-thesis project seems to indicate a similar trend that warrants investigation into causes of circadian rhythm shift and the relation of sleep quality to performance.