Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging

Published purpose

This project will analyze pre-existing data collected by the Bio-Monitor biometric shirt in nine astronauts (two women) before, during and after missions to the International Space Station. Specific goals of this project include the un-intrusive assessment of astronaut sleep, fitness and blood pressure continually over long-duration (48-hour) recordings. Sleep is paramount to astronaut health, with numerous pre-existing reports of impaired sleep during flight. By assessing how sleep changes over the course of a mission with previously validated analyses, strategies to improve sleep quality could be developed. Astronaut fitness can be measured from Bio-Monitor signals. Finally, these analyses will allow for improved understandings of changes to astronaut health over the course of 6-month missions; they will also support the use of the Canadian-produced Bio-Monitor shirt for future missions to the moon.