• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
Man spent months alone underground in a cave and it had an unbelievable effect on his body clock

Home> Science

Published 12:33 1 May 2024 GMT+1

Man spent months alone underground in a cave and it had an unbelievable effect on his body clock

Siffre experienced time twice as slow.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Featured Image Credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES / Staff / Patrick Durand / Contributor / Getty
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

Some scientists dedicate their entire lives to their research, sometimes depriving themselves of sleep, social lives, and our basic needs to test their theories.

One such researcher isolated himself from daylight to spend hours in darkness and see what effect it would have on his body.

Michel Siffre conducted an experiment to study how how humans experience time when there's no external cues.

In 1962, the scientist cut himself off from the entire world for two months.

Advert

Circadian rhythms are our body's internal clock and they last roughly 24 hours. No, this is not a coincidence because they're synced to Earth's 24-hour day and night cycles.

They are regulated by several factors, the main ones being daylight and temperature.

So, what happens when we're deprived of daylight?

PHILIPPE DESMAZES / Staff / Getty
PHILIPPE DESMAZES / Staff / Getty

Advert

Reflecting of his expedition, Siffre explained: 'This idea came to me - this idea that became the idea of my life. I decided to live like an animal, without a watch, in the dark, without knowing the time.

'Instead of studying caves, you ended up studying time. Yes, I invented a simple scientific protocol.

'I put a team at the entrance of the cave. I decided I would call them when I woke up, when I ate, and just before I went to sleep. My team didn’t have the right to call me, so that I wouldn’t have any idea what time it was on the outside.

The French explorer added: 'Without knowing it, I had created the field of human chronobiology.'

Advert

The results? Well, with no light to regulate his clock, Siffre experienced time a lot differently.

He kept track of time by taking his pulse and carrying out his own 'psychological test'. He also had occasional contact with his team outside of the cave.

Patrick Durand / Contributor / Getty
Patrick Durand / Contributor / Getty

'I had to count from 1 to 120, at the rate of one digit per second,' the 85-year-old described.

Advert

'With that test we made a great discovery: it took me five minutes to count to 120. In other words, I psychologically experienced five real minutes as though they were two.'

Siffre was essentially experiencing everything twice as slow as they actually were. He later realised the extent of the self-experiment upon leaving the cave when he believed to still have a month left.

Also, you may be wondering how does one pass the time in these circumstances? I'm sure the majority of us would probably go crazy in the silence and darkness. But, not Siffre.

He passed the time over the two months by 'reading, writing and doing research' in the cave, while also daydreaming about his future often. Talk about time to yourself.

Choose your content:

15 hours ago
17 hours ago
18 hours ago
22 hours ago
  • 15 hours ago

    Scientist made shock admission ahead of NASA mission to asteroid 'worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000'

    It's not what most people want to hear

    Science
  • 17 hours ago

    Ozempic users share shocking ‘Ozempic sex’ side effect that not many people know about

    It's not just your wasitline that could be shrinking

    Science
  • 18 hours ago

    Solar panels illegal in 49 states could transform energy for the USA

    A YouTuber showed how the solar panels can be plugged into a home outlet

    Science
  • 22 hours ago

    How to set up emergency weather warnings on Android and iPhone following tragic Texas floods

    This comes after a tense questioning of the county sheriff about emergency alerts

    Science
  • Man spent months alone underground in a cave and it had an unbelievable effect on his body clock
  • Woman who started weight loss medication alongside husband shares shocking effect it had on their marriage
  • Doctors let stunned after woman who tried micro-dosing Ozempic reveals insane effect it had on her body
  • Unsettling video shows effect of 'Cave of Death' made from pool of carbon dioxide