Glenn Is Sleeping Better in the Stars

John Glenn takes more time to get ready for bed in orbit than it’s ever taken him on Earth. His black and blue space jammies have 23 sensors and take nearly an hour to put on. The 77-year-old is one of two sleep subjects aboard space shuttle Discovery. Researchers want to see how his sleep compares with that of a much younger colleague, Japanese astronaut Chiaki Mukai, in an effort to help those who sleep fitfully on Earth. In the early days of the mission, Glenn slept 6 or 6 1/2 hours, but on Monday, he got a full seven hours. “It’s easier to sleep with all that on up here than it is on the ground,” Glenn said because the electrodes were not digging into his skin in weightlessness. Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School researcher, said most astronauts sleep poorly in space for a variety of reasons--including the fact that the sun rises and sets every 90 minutes.