In the sixties and seventies, 20th century, NSF sponsored some sleep research with some of the crews wintering over at the South Pole Station. When it is 100 below fahrenheit, I'm told, there is not a lot to do outside at the Pole. One thing at a hundred below, is the Three Hundred Club which, is from the Sauna to out of doors and do a traverse of some short course outside when it is 100 below or colder. You do this naked, though you are allowed shoes or sandals. It is done with an audience dressed for the cold that get's to watch your naked romp. They can also rescue you before you freeze solid! Afterwards, there is is a drinking celebration and the initiates are all toasted. (mild pun) Both sexes are members, and I will not mention their names even here. I knew the first woman member of the three hundred club. Long long ago! No, I was not there. Anyway. These kinds of activities keep some active minds sane. The internet does too, now. The sleep? Well all you had to do was signup and record your time and turn it in. Adults sleep an average of 7.9 hours and that seems pretty famiiar. Most people need no more than that, usually, to keep their memories properly organized. 8 hours is a third of your life and I always thought, "way to much" for my active mind. I seldom sleep that long, even, or especially now. When you age, some bouts of sleep are shorter. I may learn napping, yet. Of interest may be it is -- is this: One of The Jobs the scientific and maintenance crews have to do there is to keep the water-melter full, or suppiled with snow to melt into water for the station. There are two large articulated front-end loaders, and they may have more of them now. The loaders are stored "running" 24 /7. They are kept in a barn, and the flexible big diesel bladders with their fuel, gets a layer of diesel jelly a foot or two thick even in the warmth of the tractor barn, which usually is 60 to 80 below. I do not know if they have heaters on them now. . . .but one of my buddies said one of the guys, a scientist with a mission in the cold, was filling up the melter when he killed the loader. By the time he walked into the base, and got help for the other tractor, everything was really cold. 80 below or better. They dragged the dead tractor into the barn before they finished filling the sno-melter completely. Then they 'plugged' in the heaters and covered the tractor with blankets. It took over two-weeks to get warm enough to start it again and you sure did not want to kill the other tractor or your water supply (like for the Sauna) would be endangerd. Maybe even your life. You will attempt a lot of things to avoid boredom at the pole. One of my friends is an avid skier. There are high enough piles of snow blown in to climb on and get a run out of on your skies. But. At 84 or something below zero, there is no wax for the skis that will allow them to slide, and you can be right on the edge of skiing fineand even skiing, and the wax freezes like it is now rubbing two blocks of carborundum together to try to even drag your skis over the frozen 'snow'. (I'm told, not experienced it.) You're skiing and then screech to stop. 7.9 hours then; movies, sauna, excercise, reading something you always wanted to, and sleep again. Of course, compile and analyse your data, write your reports, but sleep is a lot of it. Fill the melter... This is their webcam at the south pole: http://www.usap.gov/videoClipsAndMaps/spWebCam.cfm Current Weather 02/12/2007 16:30:00 GMT Temperature -32.7°C -26.9°F WindChill -48.3°C -54.9 F