40 Days in a Cave with No Time Perception

As you know, after the pandemic started, there was a situation of closure to homes around the world. Thereupon, the French researcher Christian Clot argues that people are socially isolated. adapt He wondered what his limits were and started an experiment.

Then those aged between 27 and 50, from 8 men and 7 women 15 participants, consisting of 15 participants, embarked on an adventure in the cave where they would live without a phone, clock and daylight for 40 days. So what was the result of this experiment?

The aim of the experiment was to observe people’s reactions when they lost their sense of time and space.

Therefore, after the research to compare Before the participants entered the cave, their brain activities and mental functions were analyzed so that this could be done. Clot stated that at first, the participants had trouble adapting to the cave, and that they were sleepless for a few days. Participants slept in tents inside the cave and were strictly forbidden to wake each other up.

Christian Clot

And anyway, everyone was free, as Clot told the participants that they could sleep and eat whenever they wanted. Because of this, no one knew for sure how long he slept. In other words, the team leader leaves people completely to themselves and spends their days away from them. to your intuition We can say that he wanted them to plan accordingly.

As time went on, it was seen that people who could not sleep initially slept and woke up in harmony with the group. It’s actually kind of ‘People can adapt to everything in time’ It was a remarkable result.

Image showing electricity generation by bicycle

In addition, the volunteers had to generate their own electricity and cook their food naturally. Cave electricity came from a bicycle connected to a generator. As the volunteers pedal, the bike moves into the air. electric was providing.

For example, not all parts of the cave were illuminated, only a part of it was allocated electricity. This includes difficult living conditions. made it harder of course.

In fact, people need space to cook food and meet their water needs. 45 meters He even drew water from a well below him. According to the researcher’s explanation, the shower event was unfortunately a bit of a problem. Because the cave was already very cold and humid, the environment was not very suitable for showering.

Something rather surprising was discovered in the experiment: The volunteers’ one-day time cycles were more than 24 hours.

Participants usually spent their days doing activities such as exploring the cave, examining insects, growing plants/vegetables. One of the interesting details noticed at the end of the experiment was that for most participants the days were longer than 30 hours. Even a day for a female participant 40 hours was found to be; He slept only 23 times in 40 days.

This interesting finding is, “Isn’t a day really 24 hours? Does time completely depend on our perception of it? Of course, these are a bit of a joke. Because people experimenting in this cave day and night have no concepts. Therefore, it is not possible to change the perceptions of time.

While all of this was going on, the participants were affected by the electricity provided by bicycles inside the cave. scientific measurements were made. For example, volunteers were given a drug that remained in the body for 3-4 days so that their body temperature could be measured.

When this drug traveled through the digestive system, the degree of body temperature could be understood. According to the team leader, taking this measurement as body temperature changes around the clock, the effect of the experiment on the body It was an important detail that helped to understand.

For the measurement of sleep patterns, the hearts of the hearts devices are placed. Apart from that, blood samples were taken and brain chemicals were monitored. While all this was being done, they were being watched by cameras.

Clot, they got a lot data He stated that this data is processed by 12 laboratories around the world. In terms of being a research carried out in about a month, we can say that it is a small but comprehensive research.

You know what shocked everyone after the experiment was over?

When asked how many days the volunteers might have spent in the cave, most ”I guess it’s around 30 days” made such predictions. According to them, there was still a long time until the end of the experiment, so as you can see, there was a 10-day shift in their time perception.

Clot to them “Experiment is over, let’s go” When he said that, most of them didn’t want to leave the cave and had a hard time leaving it mentally. We can say that this was the most interesting finding of the experiment.

In fact, the funny thing is that some participants, experiment He even wanted to go back to the cave after it was over. Clot also stated that the 3 volunteers participating in the research insistently want to participate in such experiments.

In addition, the expert assembles a team to test the difficult living conditions again. To the Brazilian rainforest and Siberia He said he was going. Well, would you participate in an experiment that had to be lived in an environment with such difficult conditions? You can share your thoughts with us in the comments.