Get $5,000 per month for doing this

The dream job for all couch potatoes is here! And the company offering it would add star value to your CV. This is no daydream. NASA really is offering to pay you a fortune for literally staying in bed all day long for its “Bed Rest Study” programme. And guess what, you can watch TV, surf the internet, play games, have visitors. All these, except the visitors of course, will be provided by the NASA guys. Hell, you can even take a shower in bed.

What is ‘Bed Rest Study’?

The research is being conducted to study the effects of microgravity on the human body in a bid to improve working conditions for astronauts who have to remain in weightless conditions for long time periods. It is being conduscted by NASA’s Flight Analogs Project Team at the Johnson Space Center.

“This study will show how much your body, tilted down slightly with head down and feet up, for 70 days, 24-hours a day, without getting out of bed, except for limited times for specific tests, is like an astronaut’s body during the weightlessness of space flight,” according to NASA.

What you have to do?

Basically, you have to just lie down in bed all day long so that the scientist dudes can see what effects it has on your body. But in the initial days you can exercise too. There are 2 groups of participants: exercising and non-exercising who’d be in for 105 and 97 days respectively.

There are 3 phases:

1. Ambulatory period (21 or 13 days): where the volunteers will be allowed to move around in the bed rest area and do any normal day-to-day activity.
2. Bed rest period (70 days): Volunteers will be required to lie down in bed, feet raised slightly above the head.
3. Recovery period (14 days): Again, volunteers would be able to move about in the room and slowly resume normal activity.

The Pros:

Of course, the money. It’s insane!  Five thousand dollars a month. And plus the fact that you’d be helping the astronauts. You can proudly say to your friends and family, “Oh it was for humanity.” How proud your mother would be who always scolded you for spending too much time slumped on the sofa watching TV.

The Cons:

Sounds pretty simple, hmm. Staying in bed for that long obviously takes a toll on the body, and so does microgravity. It affects body mass, muscle strength, and can weaken the veins and arteries of legs. And you can move only when the docs come to conduct their tests.

Bummer bummer bummer: Only US citizens and permanent US residents can participate in the study. If you qualify, apply here.

We seriously think every nation’s government should conduct such studies for the benefit of mankind. Hope they take the clue from NASA.