Siffre (75)

• Siffre spent six months alone in a cave
• Aim:

  • Siffre aimed to see what his natural sleep-wake cycle when there are no external influences such as light
  • He also aimed to see how astronauts would cope when travelling through space without external zeitgeibers
• Procedure:

  • Siffre went to cave for 6 months
  • he had a bed, table and chair along with food and water
  • only artificial light which was controlled by researchers
  • no way of telling the time so when he was tired he would phone the researchers and ask them to turn the light off
  • tested his blood pressure, memory tests and cycling 3 miles
• Results:

  • Siffre became depressed due to loneliness
  • His memory was negatively impacted along with his eyesight
  • Siffre did not get the days and the night right
  • His sleep-wake cycles varied between 18 to 52 hours
• Conclusion:

  Zeitgebers are important for several reasons, and their absence can impact memory and mental health

  • Without external cues the sleep-wake cycle can sometimes double in length up to 52 hours
• generalisability - The sample was only one individual - therefore other people may have reacted differently and demonstrated different natural sleep-wake cycles
• Strength - Standardised sample, the same equipment could be provided to another individual and the experiment set-up
• Strength - RLA - the results were useful to astronauts - the study showed that isolation was not goof for mental health and that astronauts would need companionship
• Limitation - Siffre experienced psychological harm such as loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts due to the isolation