15 people spent 40 days in a cave without a phone, watch or sunlight in an extreme experiment: here are the results

Fifteen volunteers emerged from a cave in southwestern France after spending 40 days without a watch, phone or sunlight for an experience of human isolation.

The group of eight men and seven women lived in Lombrives Cave as part of a $ 1.4 million project called Deep Time, who set out to explore the limits of human adaptability to isolation. The project, led by the Human Adaption Institute, ended after 40 days on Saturday.

With big smiles on their pale faces, they left their voluntary isolation in Lombrives Cave with a round of applause and took advantage of the light while wearing special glasses to protect their eyes after so long in the dark.

While in the cave, the volunteers slept in tents and made their own electricity with a pedal bicycle as there was no natural light. They also drew water from a well 146 feet below the ground.

Since there was no sun, the team had to follow their biological clocks to know when to sleep, eat or do daily chores.

Not surprisingly, they quickly lost track of time.

Project manager Christian Clot, who was also part of the group, told reporters on Saturday: And here we are! We left after 40 days … For us, it was a real surprise “, city The Guardian .

A volunteer said he thought it had been underground for 23 days.

The group had no communication with the outside world and could not use phones or other electronic devices.

A volunteer, math teacher Johan Francois, said he ran 10-kilometer circles in the cave to keep fit. He also said he had “visceral desires” to get out of the cave, he told the BBC.

But other volunteers felt differently, and two-thirds said they wanted to stay in the cave longer.

“For once in our life it felt like we could take a break»Said Marina Lançon, one of the seven women who took part in the experiment.. “For once in our life, we had the time and we were able to stop living and do our homework. It was awesome “.

However, Lançon admitted that he was happy to be outside and hear the birds singing again.

In partnership with laboratories in France and Switzerland, the scientists monitored the sleep patterns, social interactions and behavioral reactions of the 15 team members using sensors. One sensor was a small thermometer inside a capsule that participants swallowed like a pill. He measured body temperature and transmitted data to a computer until he was naturally expelled.

The brain activity of the volunteers was also collected before and after entering the cave.

Scientists behind the project say who will help them understand how people can adapt to extreme living conditions and be completely isolated.

“It’s really interesting to see how this group syncs up,” he said. Clot previously in a recording of the cave interior in which he said that working together on projects and organizing tasks without being able to set a time to meet was particularly difficult.

“Our future as humans on this planet will change,” Clot said after leaving the cave. “We need to learn to better understand how our brains are able to find new solutions, whatever the situation.

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