This brief item was in the Sideswipe column of yesterday's NZ Herald (23 September, 2013) ...
Not only do you get very well-paid for doing absolutely nothing, you'll likely get free room and meals as well (at a NASA scientific centre).Deep space sleep ... on Earth
NASA is looking for volunteers to stay in bed for 70 days straight and they'll pay you $18,000 for your trouble. It's to test the effects of weightlessness and lack of exercise on space travellers. The study simulates the effects of long-duration space flight by having test subjects lie in beds for the 70-day period. The beds are tilted head-down at a six degree angle. According to Dr Roni Cromwell, this tilt, which causes body fluids to shift to the upper part of the body, sets off cardiovascular events that are similar to what we see in a space flight.
Just a pity that, as with all such silly studies, it won't actually prove anything at all, other than what happens when some lazy person on Earth stays in bed for 70 days with fluids shifted to their upper body ... which is completely different to actually being weightless in space.