Sleeping may earn you $10 per hr

Washington, August 2 : It's no more necessary to get up early in the morning and get ready for work, for NASA is paying people just to sleep.

Well, the U.S. space agency is paying 10 dollars per hour to the subjects participating in its bed rest study, which requires them to spend three consecutive months in bed.

The participants will be paid about 17,000 dollars over the course of the study, which is carried out at the University of Texas.

They spend three months lying down, and the preparation and rehabilitation take up another month.

The study is aimed at finding ways to minimize the debilitating impact of zero gravity in space, which can cause reduction in muscle mass and bone density.

NASA's Flight Analog Research Unit says one way to recreate such conditions on the ground is for test participants to lie down with head slightly tilted back for 90 days.

Experts behind the project say that the participants in their bed-rest study are providing valuable information for the space program.

"It's very relaxing at times. This is probably the most I've sat still in 10 years," foxnews.com quoted Heather Archuletta, a study participant, as saying.

ANI