# 40 days in The Hole! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 24, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712 "2021-04-24T20:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/1 "2021-04-24T20:31:42Z")
Well, _cave_ really. 😃 I had not heard of this project before this article. I’m not sure how much actual scientific value there is in this kind of thing (more than none, certainly), but I still think it’s very cool. > **[Out of the cave: French isolation study ends after 40 days](https://apnews.com/article/world-news-health-science-environment-and-nature-caves-82c18f720f0e08962191ddb68e2eeb39)** > > LOMBRIVES CAVE, France (AP) — Ever wonder what it would feel like to unplug from a hyperconnected world and hide away in a dark cave for 40 days... ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/2 "2021-04-24T20:48:08Z")
As I await the remaining six days to full immunity, I find myself feeling like I, too, am emerging from a cave, yet I know my experience was much less extreme. Did they have no light at all? What projects could they work on in total darkness? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/3 "2021-04-24T20:56:19Z")
No sunlight, the article says. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/4 "2021-04-24T22:41:25Z")
Finding additional information on other stories where this has been done in the past was one of those Cruelty to Google Users things, but here’s a story about a man and a woman who did this in 1965. > **[That Time When People Lived Alone in Caves for Science](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/11/the-caves-of-forgotten-time/414894/)** > > Two spelunkers lost track of entire weeks as part of an experiment on the effects of isolation. What this did to the woman’s menstrual cycle is not addressed in the story. This story does say what happened to another woman who did a similar experiment; sadly, she committed suicide in 1990 and this is her obituary announcement. > **[Woman in Isolation Test Is Found Dead](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-19-mn-268-story.html)** > > Veronique Le Guen, who for 111 days lived in dank underworld isolation, has been found dead in a car, an apparent suicide, police said Thursday. I had previously heard of Michel Siffre, referenced in the above articles. > **[Michel Siffre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Siffre)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Michel Siffre (born 3 January 1939) is a French underground explorer, adventurer and scientist. He was born in Nice, where he spent his childhood. At just 10 years of age, he explored the Imperial Cave Park, and discovered a passion for caving. > He received a postgraduate degree at the Sorbonne six months after completing his baccalaurĂ©at. His many achievements include the creation of the French Institute of Speleology in 1962.\[citation needed\]... ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/5 "2021-04-25T16:47:36Z")
In the OP I wrote: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I’m not sure how much actual scientific value there is in this kind of thing (more than none, certainly), but I still think it’s very cool. > [Out of the cave: French isolation study ends after 40 days | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/world-news-health-science-environment-and-nature-caves-82c18f720f0e08962191ddb68e2eeb39) From Mr. Siffre’s Wikipedia page: > [@](#): > > In his youth, he became interested in the space race and decided to find a way to contribute. Imagining situations faced by astronauts, he noticed that some of them could play out in a deep cave. This motivated him to start his experiments. > [@](#): > > The notes of his experiments were used by NASA. Several astronauts reported experiences similar to those experienced in underground experiments such as loss of short-term memory to being isolated from external time references. So there is definitely more balue than “none” to this type of activity; that totally fucking rocks. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/6 "2021-04-26T19:40:40Z")
In the 1800’s a group of TB patients spent about 5 months in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, to see if it would help with their condition. Three died. > **[Tuberculosis in Mammoth Cave (U.S. National Park Service)](https://www.nps.gov/articles/tuberculosis-mammoth-cave.htm)** ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/7 "2021-04-26T22:53:24Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Did they have no light at all? They had lights, but they had no sunlight or clocks or calendars. Results varied by participant but many were surprised when the cave door opened because they didn’t realize it had been 40 full days. Several thought they had 10 days to go yet. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-in-the-hole/940712/8 "2021-04-27T02:30:39Z")
There were those 33 miners in Chile who were trapped in a cave-in for 69 days until they were rescued. When they began pulling them out of the mine one at a time, it was live-streamed. I watched them pull the first few guys out. IIRC, they pulled them out during the night so they wouldn’t suddenly be exposed to sunlight so fast, and even at night they made them wear dark goggles, so they could be exposed to light gradually. > **[2010 Copiapó mining accident | Miners post-rescue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Copiap%C3%B3_mining_accident#Miners_post-rescue)** > > All but two of the men went home within 48 hours of their rescue, and by 19 October all had left the hospital. > [@](#): > > Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at the New York University [Langone Medical Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langone_Medical_Center), said that lack of sunlight could cause problems with muscles, bones and other organs. Jane Aubin, scientific director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis at the [Canadian Institutes of Health Research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Institutes_of_Health_Research), said the miners would have to be monitored closely: “They haven’t been as physically active as you would want [them] to be, so they have undoubtedly experienced some muscle loss. 
 Probably after that extended period of time, in both a confined space and in relative darkness, they’ve also probably experienced some [bone loss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoporosis).”[[153]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Copiap%C3%B3_mining_accident#cite_note-Alphonso_(2010)-153)