NASA Is Willing to Pay You $18,500 and All You Have to Do Is Stay In Bed for 2 Months

Do you have a pretty deep love of your bed? Is it your hardest goodbye each morning and your fondest hello at night? Yeah, same here. We love to sleep and we especially love to be cozy in our beds. If sleeping for two months straight sounds like something right up your alley, then you might want to check out this opportunity from NASA.

Yes, NASA, as in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Independent reported that NASA is looking to pay volunteers $18,500 for 60 days of work. And the job? Staying in bed for two months. This sounds like the perfect job for people who claim to thrive on being homebodies.

Now, this isn’t just an excuse to sleep all day. NASA is looking for volunteers because their scientists are trying to test and further understand how artificial gravity affects the human body. The study, named AGBRESA (Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study) first launched in mid-March. It is part of a scientific partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center. So, if you were already packing up your favorite sleepwear, we must confess there is a catch. All volunteers must speak German. If you know anyone who took German in high school or college, you’re going to want to hit them up ASAP. Or maybe travel to North Dakota as German is the 2nd most spoken language there.

Associate Chief Scientist for International Collaborations for NASA’s Human Research Program, Leticia Vega, told The Independent:

“Both effects are similar to what astronauts experience in space. Although the effects of weightlessness are primarily investigated on the International Space Station, analogs such as :envihab are helpful when studying certain research topics under controlled conditions on Earth. These findings will later be validated on the ISS.”

The study is looking for 12 females and 12 males between the ages of 24 and 55. For their troubles, the volunteers will be compensated £14,000 ($18,500). The study is looking to test artificial gravity to see what negative effects the absence of gravity has on the human body. It will all take place at :envihab, which is a medical research facility at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne. That explains why volunteers need to speak German!

While the bed rest portion of this study is 60 days, participants will remain at the facility for a total of 89 days. They will get five days to familiarize themselves first, then there is a 14-day rest period as well. During the study, participants will be restricted in their movements to prevent strain on their tendons, muscles, and skeletal system.

Now, this study isn’t going to be putting participants in cushy, plush beds like they’d be sleeping in at home. The head of the beds will be angled downward by about six degrees to simulate the displacement of bodily fluids. This is something that astronauts experience while aboard a space shuttle. The participants will be divided in half, with some testing out conditions similar to an artificial gravity chamber. They will be spun around in a centrifuge at 30 revolutions a minute.

Sound like something you would be interested in? If you’d like to take part in the next round of the study in September, you can email probanden-bit@dlr.de by May 24.