How space psychology can be applied to those of us on earth.
By Anne Kuckertz
By now you may have heard all about the effects of space travel on the body. About how the lack of gravity causes muscle and bone to atrophy. Or, if you were really paying attention, the negative changes to cardiovascular functioning. But what is discussed with less frequency is the influence space has on mental health.
Given the recent increased time many have us have spent in quarantine, the most immediately prevalent lesson that astronauts can teach us is how to cope with isolation. They spend around six months (sometimes longer) with the same six people and somehow manage to fulfill their astronaut duties harmoniously. So how do we apply their experiences to our own of having to suddenly convert our homes into living, working, and exercising spaces? Astronaut Anne McClain, who spent 204 days in space has five tips for living in close quarters: communication, leadership/followership, self-care, team care, and group living.
As covid quarantine experiencers, we’re intimately aware of the importance of self-care and group living (I.e., Accommodating differing beliefs and personalities effectively) to stave off depression. We’ve had to learn how to peacefully coexist with social interaction limited to just a few people, something that astronauts do professionally. Given how much time astronauts spend with the same people on the International Space Station (ISS), they must be adept at using communication as a tool for conflict resolution. Which is why NASA carefully screens prospective astronauts not just for engineering/flight capabilities and physical health but also for personalities that will mesh well together.
Us earthlings don’t always have the luxury of being so picky about who we live with, especially if they’re family, whom we are lovingly forever stuck with. But we can be astronauts in our own spaces by using communication before and after conflict to identify how we can account for differing needs. This factors into effective team care which is the group’s overall psychological, physiological, and logistical health. McClain recommends cultivating team care through “patience and respect”, encouraging your crew members, and offering/accepting help. In our everyday gravity environment this might translate to volunteering to take out the trash, praising the kiddos after they successfully complete a day of Zoom school, or letting your roommate do the dishes even if they don’t quite make the glasses gleam in just the way you like.
Beyond lessons pertaining to living in isolation, astronauts can teach us so much more about mental health in general. In particular, the importance of regulated sleep. Given that astronauts living on the ISS see a sunrise every ninety minutes, maintaining a constant sleep cycle can often prove elusive since they can’t use daylight, or rather, lack thereof as a natural cue for bedtime. Given how crucial sleep quality is for completing complex tasks, such as, you know, maintaining a space station, a bad sleep schedule can be not only dangerous for the individual but for the crew as well. (You wouldn’t want your bus driver to be sleepy during your morning commute.) To combat the space sleep battle, NASA developed a lighting system that has a full range of brightness and colors. Which means that they can artificially simulate a day on earth by emitting warm colored light at sunrise/sunset, no light at bedtime, and brighter/bluer light during the day. Given the importance of not only the brightness of light, but also the temperature on the ISS. This further emphasizes what our doctors have been telling us all along, no blue light emitting devices before bed.
In addition to light, temperature and noise contribute to sleep dysregulation on the ISS. Although the ISS is designed to maintain a constant temperature overall (many of the electronics on board are temperature sensitive), astronauts don’t have control over the temperature of their individual sleeping quarters. Because being too cold or too hot can affect how one sleeps, a NASA review of sleep quality factors recommended that future iterations of the ISS should allow astronauts to adjust temperature to personal preference. Currently, ISS inhabitants can make use of space blankets to maintain warmth. These high-tech sheets are made of plastic covered in devaporized aluminum, resulting in a very lightweight insulator that has the added bonus of deflecting radiation. The first space suits were lined with this material and have since been cooperated to produce temperature regulating baby swaddles and emergency blankets (If you’ve ever used one of those tinfoil looking blankets, that’s a less expensive/high tech version of space suit material!) Lucky for those of us not hurtling through space at 17,150 miles per hour, we can control our sleeping temperature, reaching that Goldilocks number of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to a more restful sleep and the improved cognitive functioning that comes along with it.
Since its founding in 1994, the NASA Behavioral Health Team has worked to lessen the effects of isolation and sleep deprivation. They emphasize the importance of astronauts staying grounded/connected to their life on earth, allowing families to send care packages to the ISS, and coordinating video calls with loved ones, a space Zoom happy hour, if you will. They also incorporated their research into the physical design of the ISS and the astronauts’ schedules too, making sure to accommodate for good tasting/nutritious food, leisure time, and meaningful work which includes gaining new skills like learning a foreign language or developing a hobby, they can even attend to the space garden.
Space exploration is deepening our knowledge of not just our galactic neighbors, but of ourselves as well. The findings from space behavioral health research can be applied to our daily lives, giving us further insight on how to better navigate both a pandemic and post-pandemic world. Plus, the thought of floating astronauts growing leafy greens in their space garden is certainly mood-boosting.
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