Whether you use your cell phone or a watch, you probably look at it several times a day to check the time.
Time plays a fundamental role in our lives and that is why even the most ancient civilizations sought a way to measure it, using the sun as a reference.
But what if we didn’t know? when it is day and when it is night? And we didn’t have either a device that keeps track of time?
That’s what a young French geologist named Michel Siffre asked himself in the 1960s.
Siffre’s mystery arose in the context of the so-called space race, as the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to conquer space was known.
In 1961, Soviet Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to travel into space, orbiting the Earth for 108 minutes.
What would happen if humans spent more time in space? Siffre wondered. How would it affect our sleep cycles?
To answer that question, Instead of traveling outward from the planet, it went inward.
Caveman
Table of Contents
Siffre, who died on August 25 at the age of 85 in Nice, was a speleologistas scientists who study caves are known.
In 1962, at just 23 years old, he carried out one of the most famous experiments in the history of human chronobiologya field he helped found, dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of biological rhythms.
camping two months in a cave 130 metres deep, alone and with a miner’s lamp as his only source of light, which he used sparingly to prepare his food, read and write in his diary.
“I decided to live like an animal, without a clock, in the dark, without knowing the time.“he would explain in a 2008 interview with Joshua Foer of Cabinet magazine.
Siffre conducted his experiment on an underground glacier in the Alps that he had discovered a year earlier.
“I placed a team at the entrance to the cave. I decided that I would call them when I woke up, when I ate and just before I went to sleep. My team had no right to call me, so I would have no idea what time it was outside,” he explained.
In this way, he managed to demonstrate that humans have a “biological clock“.
Although, the surprise was to discover that this watch was not governed by a 24-hour dayas it often happens in our daily lives.
Time stopped
During the eight weeks he stayed in the cave, Siffre He ate and slept only when his body asked him to.
In addition to reporting to the surface team each time he did so, the scientist also performed two checks: he measured his pulse and counted from 1 to 120.
It was the second that led to one of the most amazing discoveries of the experiment.
The goal was for Siffre to count to 120, taking one second per digit, while his collaborators recorded the actual time.
This is how they realized that the scientist kept a much slower record of time.
“It took me five minutes to count to 120. In other words, psychologically I experienced five real minutes as if they were two.”
This feeling of slowed time was confirmed when Siffre finally emerged from the cave.
Two months had passed, but the scientist I was convinced that only one had passed.
“My psychological time had been cut in half,” he said.
48 hours
Siffre’s findings suggested that without the circadian rhythms which are guided by nature through the rising and setting of the sun, our bodies seem to have an internal clock that runs roughly on a 48 hour cycle.
This theory was reinforced through other experiments that the French speleologist carried out throughout his more than 50-year career, both using himself as a test subject and others.
Following his “separation” in 1962 – as he called it – he conducted five further cave experiments with volunteers (including one woman), each lasting between three and six months.
Siffre observed that everyone eventually entered this 48-hour cycle.
“They had 36 hours of continuous activity, followed by 12 to 14 hours of sleep“, he said.
“After making this discovery, the French army gave me a lot of funding. They wanted me to study how it would be possible for a soldier to duplicate his activity in a waking state,” he revealed to Cabinet magazine.
The French Ministry of Defense was also interested in the experiments for another reason: they had just launched their nuclear submarine program and wanted to know the effects on the health of sailors on long missions.
They were not the only ones interested. Also the American space agency, NASAwanted to understand the effects of long-duration space missions.
Both financed Siffre’s second personal project who, in 1972, ten years after his first stay in the cave in the Alps, He went back undergroundbut this time in the US, and for much longer.
His goal was to pass six months in Midnight Cave near Del Rio, Texas.
“I was interested in studying the effects of aging on psychological time“My plan was to do an experiment every ten or fifteen years to see if there had been any changes in the way my brain perceives time,” he explained.
He also admitted that he wanted to clear up the doubt as to why “everyone else I had put underground had a forty-eight-hour sleep/wake cycle, except me.”
Finally, in this experiment, which ended up lasting 205 days (about 7 months), he also entered the 48 hour cycle, but not regularly.
“I had thirty-six hours of continuous wakefulness, followed by twelve hours of sleep. I couldn’t tell the difference between those long days and days that lasted only twenty-four hours,” he said.
“Sometimes I would sleep two hours or eighteen hours, and I couldn’t tell the difference.”
“I think that is an experience that we can all appreciate,” he concluded.
“It is the problem of psychological time. It is the problem of humans. What is time? We don’t know.“.
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– How does our internal biological clock affect our perception of time in different environments?
Here is a comprehensive and SEO-optimized article on the topic of how our concept of time is influenced by our surroundings and our internal biological clocks:
The Mysterious Concept of Time: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Perception
Time plays a fundamental role in our lives, and yet, have you ever stopped to think about how we perceive it? Do we really know when it’s day and when it’s night without glancing at a device that keeps track of time? What if we didn’t have a watch or a phone to remind us of the time? These are the questions that a young French geologist named Michel Siffre asked himself in the 1960s, and his experiment would go on to revolutionize our understanding of time and our internal biological clocks.
The Cave Experiment
Siffre, a speleologist, wondered what would happen if humans spent more time in space and how it would affect our sleep cycles. Instead of traveling outward from the planet, he decided to travel inward – into a deep cave. In 1962, at just 23 years old, Siffre embarked on one of the most famous experiments in the history of human chronobiology. He camped for two months in a cave 130 meters deep, alone and with only a miner’s lamp as his source of light. He had no clock, no way of knowing the time, and no communication with the outside world except for a team that waited at the entrance of the cave.
Living Like an Animal
Siffre’s goal was to live like an animal, without a clock, in the dark, without knowing the time. He would wake up, eat, and sleep only when his body asked him to. He would report to the surface team each time he did so, and they would record the actual time. This experiment was designed to test the human body’s internal clock, and the results were astounding.
The Biological Clock
During the eight weeks he stayed in the cave, Siffre demonstrated that humans have a biological clock that governs our daily rhythms. However, the surprise was that this clock was not governed by a 24-hour day, as it often happens in our daily lives. Siffre’s body had a natural rhythm that was not influenced by the external environment.
Time Stopped
One of the most amazing discoveries of the experiment was that Siffre’s perception of time was significantly different from the actual time. He would count to 120, taking one second per digit, while his collaborators recorded the actual time. This is how they realized that the scientist kept a much slower record of time. It took him five minutes to count to 120, which means that psychologically, he experienced five real minutes as if they were two.
The Implications of the Experiment
Siffre’s experiment has far-reaching implications for our understanding of time and our internal biological clocks. It shows that our perception of time is influenced by our surroundings and our internal rhythms. It also highlights the importance of understanding our natural rhythms and how they affect our daily lives.
Conclusion
Time is a mysterious concept that has fascinated humans for centuries. Michel Siffre’s experiment shows that our perception of time is not always accurate and that our internal biological clocks play a significant role in shaping our daily rhythms. As we continue to explore the mysteries of time, we are reminded of the importance of understanding our natural rhythms and how they affect our lives.
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Time
Biological clock
Internal rhythms
Michel Siffre
Speleologist
Human chronobiology
Cave experiment
Perception of time
Surroundings
Natural rhythms
Daily rhythms
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Explore the mysterious concept of time and how our surroundings shape our perception. Learn about Michel Siffre’s groundbreaking cave experiment that revealed the importance of our internal biological clocks.
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H1: The Mysterious Concept of Time: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Perception
H2: The Cave Experiment
H2: Living Like an Animal
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* H2: The Implications of the Experiment
