Man who lived in cave and had no concept of time reveals incredible effect on his body clock
Ditching day-to-day life and living in a cave? Where do I sign up?
In 1962, French underground explorer and scientist Michel Siffre felt like cutting himself from the world for two months - relatable.
However, rather than splashing the cash and taking himself to a comfy all-inclusive for a while or hopping on a cruise, he decided to opt for a cave - cost of living crisis-friendly, I guess? And it had some pretty intense effects on his body and mind.
Why did Michel Siffre live in a cave?
Inspired by the space race, at the age of 23, Michel decided to position himself 130 meters below the surface in the Scarasson, a mountain in the Ligurian Alps.
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Ditching his wristwatch - well, it's not like they had many cell phones floating around back then - Siffre descended into the cave for two months with absolutely no sense of time.
Speaking about the outlandish mission, Michel told Cabinet Magazine in 2008: "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."
The explorer decided to place himself next to a glacier and only sleep or drink or eat when his body told him - opposed to set breakfast, lunch and dinner meal times - putting a team at the entrance of the cave, calling them when he woke up, when he ate and before he slept so they could track his activities.
And well, the effects of the experiment were pretty incredible.
The effects of living in a cave
During his time in the cave, Michel took his pulse and conducted his own 'psychological test'.
"I had to count from 1 to 120, at the rate of one digit per second. 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," he explained.
Surprisingly, the time went extremely quick for the Frenchman as he believed a month was still to run on the expedition when told by those on the ground it was time to get out.
"My psychological time had compressed by a factor of two," Michel added.
The explorer continued: "I believe that when you are surrounded by night - the cave was completely dark, with just a light bulb - your memory does not capture the time.
"You forget. After one or two days, you don’t remember what you have done a day or two before. The only things that change are when you wake up and when you go to bed.
"Besides that, it’s entirely black. It’s like one long day."
Michel Siffre’s time theories
Michel's incredible findings lifted the lid on how humans react to no clocks, calendars or sunshine to inform them what time of day it is.
He continued: "Instead of studying caves, you ended up studying time. Yes, I invented a simple scientific protocol.
"Without knowing it, I had created the field of human chronobiology."
Topics: World News, Life, Health
Callum Jones