Live for 40 days in a cave, without phones, watches and sunlight – Corriere.it

Fifteen French volunteers aged 27 to 50 lived for 40 days in Lombreeves Cave in southwestern France without phones, hours, and sunlight with a constant temperature of 10 to 100% humidity. The goal: to explore the limits of a person’s ability to adapt to isolation and understand how such an extreme situation can affect the sense of time. Experience, called Deep time Saturday ended when eight men and seven women, very pale, emerged from the bowels of the earth with special sunglasses to protect their eyes after so long they had spent in the dark. The Institute for Human Adaptation led the $ 1.2 million project.

Life in the cave

During their stay in the cave, intrepid volunteers were having funOr sleep in a tent And yes they are Self-produced electricity by pedal bike. The water came from a 44 meter deep well. No contact with the outside world, no epidemic updates, no contact with family friends. Since there was no sunlight, the team followed their biological clock to schedule bedtime, eat, or do other daily activities. As expected Quickly they all lost track of time. A volunteer told reporters he believed it was only 23 days. Almost everyone agreed that time seemed to slowly pass through the cave. Math teacher, Johann Francois, told BBC Jogging 10 kilometers in the cave to keep them in shape, telling them the urgent need to leave. However, others like him didn’t think: Two-thirds said they would stay in the cave longer. For once in our lives as if we could take a break, Al said guardian Marina Lanon, one of the seven women who took part in the experiment. There was no rush to do anything and I would stay in the cave a few more days to finish the activities that had started. But it was great to go out and hear the birds singing again. The appointment with the smartphone has been postponed for a few days to avoid returning to the real world in a very cruel way by Lanon added

Why this experiment

The scientists who organized the project explained that the experiment would help themUnderstand how people can adapt to harsh living conditions. The volunteers’ brain activities and cognitive functions were analyzed before the group entered the cave and after that we will proceed to comparative studies. The scientists monitored the sleep patterns, social interactions, and behavioral reactions of the 15 team members with sensors. One of the sensors was a small thermometer inside a capsule that participants swallowed like a pill – it measures body temperature and transmits data to a computer until it is ejected normally. The research is of particular interest in this pandemic period in which millions of people lived in isolation. Team members tracked their biological clocks to see when they wake up, sleep and eat. Scientists commented that they count their days not in hours but in sleep cycles. The project manager, the Franco-Swiss explorer, said that our future as human beings will evolve Christian Clot, Also in the cave. We must learn to better understand how our brains can find new solutions, in any situation.