Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, 43, had been in orbit from March 2, 2023, to September 4, 2023—almost 186 days—as part of the crew of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission and the expedition ISS-68/ISS-69.
Recently, at the "VNaUke" 2.0 festival, Fedyaev revealed that many people in orbit experience the same dream: they meet acquaintances on Earth, and those acquaintances are surprised to see them. "Often, a cosmonaut dreams as if he is walking on Earth, meets some acquaintance, and the acquaintance says to him: 'Hello! What are you doing here? You should be in space,'" Fedayev is cited as saying by Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Fedyaev explained that this recurring dream seems to spread among cosmonauts themselves. "Someone dreamed it, told it, and then it went on, like some kind of contagion, maybe," he said, according to Gazeta.ru. He suggested that cosmonauts, by sharing these dreams with each other, might be programming themselves to have such dreams.
Despite the prevalence of this dream among his colleagues, Fedyaev himself has not experienced it.
Fedyaev's account suggests that the close-knit environment and shared experiences may lead to common subconscious themes.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that research by Russian scientist Vladislav Vyazovsky on how to put a person into a state of animal hibernation has intrigued specialists in the space industry. Vyazovsky suggested that people making long flights in space should be put into hibernation, which means a state of complete stupor and slowing of all life processes.
He explained that when animals enter hibernation, they periodically come out of it for normal deep sleep, which is necessary for the nervous system. "Scientists do not yet know how to teach a person to do the same," he noted.
Sources: Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Gazeta.ru, RBC
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq