Sopite syndrome is, in short, a form of motion sickness, but “it doesn’t make you want to lose your lunch and your tequila,” explains Horowitz. From there, the nuclei trigger neural structures throughout our brains and bodies that enable us to walk and run and do everything else without falling.īut research in the 1960s and ’70s on a common medical condition called Sopite syndrome hinted at the vestibular system’s involvement in sleep regulation as well. Three connected, semicircular canals and two small otolith organs located in each of our inner ears work in constant unison with other physiology to act as rotational and linear accelerometers, sensing movements and communicating them through neural signals that travel to the brainstem’s vestibular nuclei. The vestibular system, says Seth Horowitz, one of the neuroscientists involved in the study, is known primarily for contributing to our sense of balance. With those objectives in mind, in 2001 the agency's medical research arm, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, provided funding for State University of New York at Stony Brook neuroscience professors to examine the impacts of the body’s vestibular system on sleep, the ultimate goal being to help astronauts adjust their sleep schedules more effectively. To help combat what can be a dangerous condition, over the years NASA has funded research not only to investigate the underlying physiological phenomena that contribute to sleep deprivation but also to find methods for treating it.
With demanding schedules, a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes, and extremely noisy surroundings, it’s understandable why many astronauts onboard the International Space Station suffer from insomnia in the early stages of a mission.
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