14 DAY TRIAL // If we're going to be honest here, it must be said that lying in bed day in and day out, and being paid a truck full of money to do it is pretty much everybody's idea of the absolute best job ever.
Many of you probably think that such jobs only exist in the working class' imagination. Still, it appears that they are very much real, and one guy named Andrew Iwanicki was lucky enough to land one earlier this year.
Thus, it was back in August that the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contacted this man and told him that they would pay him $18,000 (€14,450) just to have him lie in bed for 70 days in a row.
The man has until now spent 4 weeks in a horizontal position in a bed at a research facility in Houston, Texas, which means that he has to wait for another 6 weeks until scientists finally give him permission to get up and attempt walking.
Being paid to spend each day in bed
By the looks of it, NASA contacted Andrew Iwanicki and offered to pay him to lie in bed for 70 days in a row just one day after he had lost his previous job. The man says that, under any other circumstances, he could not have signed up for this project.
“I had applied to the study a year earlier on a whim, assuming I’d never be chosen from the pool of 25,000 applicants and I’d never be able to halt my hectic life for 15 weeks,” Andrew Iwanicki explained in a statement, as cited by Oddity Central.
Funnily enough, the man is having trouble deciding whether he did right when accepting to let NASA tie him to a bed for three months straight. He is not opposed to the idea of making a whole lot of money in just a few weeks, but he cannot help but wonder just how foolish his current job is making him look.
As he put it, “As I lie here, I can’t quite decide if I’ve struck gold with this scheme or if I am just a fool willing to do anything for a stack of cash.”
Not the perfect job, after all
Andrew Iwanicki explains that, before his 10-week stay in bed, he had to undergo a series of tests. More precisely, NASA scientists collected and analyzed blood and urine samples. Besides, they subjected him to several body scans and physical tests.
Prior to his 70-day stay in bed, Andrew Iwanicki was made to spend 3 weeks in a horizontal position. During this time, he got used to eating and going to the bathroom while lying in bed. Still, he struggled a great deal when the actual research project began.
During his first week of lying in bed, the man experienced severe back and neck pains. He also suffered regular headaches, and because of the 6-degree tilt of the bed he was put in, he found it nearly impossible to relieve himself. The good news is that he eventually got used to living in a bed.
Presently, Andrew Iwanicki keeps himself entertained watching movies, browsing through books and magazines, and playing computer games. He is kept company by several other volunteers, one of who spends most of his days working on a novel.
Why pay people to lie in bed?
It is understood that this NASA research project, whose official name is Countermeasure and Functional Testing in Head-Down Tilt Bed Rest Study but which is also referred to as CFT 70, boils down to documenting how space conditions affect the human body.
Specifically, scientists expect that this investigation will help them gain a better understanding of how spending a great deal of time being virtually inactive while traveling through space can cause bones and muscles to become atrophied.
This is precisely why Andrew Iwanicki, who used to be quite active and trained regularly before NASA got to him, was chosen to take part in this research project. All in all, as many as 54 volunteers were included in this rather bizarre investigation.
