NASA Will Pay You $18,000 To Stay In Bed

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

NASA Bed TestHave you ever had one of those mornings where you just don’t want to get out of bed? You know, where you hit snooze on your alarm four times, roll back onto you pillow, and mutter something to yourself about how you need to find a job that pays you to stay in bed all day. Well, this dream may finally happen for you, and the employer is someone you wouldn’t automatically think of. NASA, yes that NASA, is in search of volunteers to take part in a 70 day sleep study, where you stay in bed all day. And here’s the best part, they’ll pay you $18,000.

The goal of this particular research project is to study the overall impact and long-term effects of immobility on your body. They want to recreate the consequences of being strapped in to a space ship, not able to move, for weeks on end. They want to examine muscle atrophy, as well as the impact on the rest of your organs and body systems.

The study will take place at NASA’s Flight Analog Research Unit, also known as FARU, which is a facility solely dedicated to the study and examination of bed-rest, which sounds awesome. Located at the University of Texas Medical Brach in Galveston, FARU is a full of fancy beds that can be moved and adjusted in order to recreate different levels of gravity. The purpose is so that researchers can examine the effects of these various factors on the human body during space travel.

Over the course of your two-plus-month stay, you’ll be allowed to do most of the things you do in an average day. You can read, watch TV and movies, surf the web, or even work if you have the kind of job you can do on a computer. The one caveat, however, is that you have to stay in that bed, laying down, at all times for 70 days. That doesn’t sound so bad at first, but I tend to get a little stir crazy after being in bed for a day or two, 70 might wind up pushing me to my limit.

If you’re interested, and have nothing better to do than lay in bed for two months, click HERE to apply. They ask you all the pertinent personal information, as well as a variety of general health related questions. All in all, it isn’t nearly as in depth or thorough as I expected a NASA application to be. Then again, you’re not trying to join a space shuttle crew or go into space, you’re applying to stay in bed for 70 freaking days.

There’s also a counter test you can apply. This is a “70-day study to test the effectiveness of exercise on loss of muscle, bone and cardiovascular function.” While this is certainly an important area of study, it doesn’t sound nearly as relaxing as laying in bed, mastering every aspect of the new Grand Theft Auto game for two months.