Sleeping in Space is Easy, But There's No Shower

Astronauts may have some tough jobs in orbit - like building a $100 billion International Space Station - but apparently getting a good night's sleep isn't one of them.

In fact, sleeping is pretty comfy in space because you can slumber without gravity's incessant pull, according to Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, who has been living aboard the linked space station and shuttle Endeavour for more than a week.

"We sleep very well in space. Can you imagine?" Payette told reporters in a recent interview broadcast by NASA. "We have a sleeping bag each, and when you get into it you float in the sleeping bag. The sleeping bag floats in the module. So all you have to do is just attach it somewhere, which is a good idea by the way because during the night while your sleeping you might start drifting and end up somewhere you didn't intend to be in the first place."

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is returning home aboard Endeavour after living on the station for 4 1/2 months, has said that anchoring yourself at night is key because otherwise you might bump into sensitive computers and equipment and switch them on accidentally.

Some astronauts have complained in the past that the first night's sleep in space can be fitful because their minds are racing ahead to the coming mission's complexity. But Endeavour's six-man, one-woman crew is in the homestretch of a 16-day spaceflight that included five challenging spacewalks to deliver spare parts and a Japanese experiment porch to the space station.

About the only thing missing, Payette said, is a shower. The thing that makes sleeping in space so comfortable - that weightless feeling - also makes it impossible to start the next morning with a refreshing shower.

"Of course, we're in weightlessness, so a showerhead with water dripping on top of your head would not work," Payette said. "We don't have a shower. We don't even have a faucet or a tap."