The November issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has a long article about a NASA project at the University of Pittsburgh, with the goal of making it possible for human beings to enter "a bearlike state of hibernation." Unfortunately, NG articles are behind a paywall, but here's an overview of the experiment on a different site:
Benefits of Sleeping in SpaceThe condition is "bearlike" in that subjects enter a period of torpor during which they can briefly awaken, unlike some rodents whose core body temperatures drop below freezing. The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC article mentions a ground squirrel in a lab put into such a deep "sleep" it appeared dead, yet revived unharmed. The magazine contains a photo of a dormant squirrel obliviously held in a researcher's hands.
A BBC America wildlife series about mammals includes video of hibernating bats, in which a male is shown briefly emerging from dormancy to mate with a sleeping female, who doesn't wake up. What happened to consent? :)
NASA hopes hibernation-like torpor might make long voyages to Mars and beyond more feasible. In that condition, astronauts would use less energy, needing less food, water, and oxygen. Sleeping through much of the trip would minimize interpersonal friction, too. Unlike astronauts at low gravity and/or in confined quarters, as well as people forced to spend weeks or months in bed because of illness, hibernating animals don't lose bone density or muscle mass. They also avoid strokes and diabetes despite their accumulation of extra fat. If space travelers could go dormant that way, even if only part of the time, they could arrive at their destinations in better health.
At present, we're nowhere near the capability of voyaging to interplanetary or interstellar locations in the "cold sleep" familiar in science fiction. We don't have to wait for long-range interplanetary travel to reap benefits from human hibernation, though. Slowing body functions in cardiac, brain-injured, and stroke patients could stabilize them until treatment could be administered -- if techniques or drugs can be developed to induce that condition instantly without dangerous side effects.
The Wikipedia page on suspended animation touches upon effects of hypothermia in humans and experiments in induced hibernation:
Suspended AnimationIf I had the metabolism of a bear, I would happily go to sleep the night of the first Sunday in Advent and stay that way until the return of Daylight Saving Time, waking only for the week from Christmas Eve through New Year's Eve. Missing the cold, dark months wouldn't bother me a bit.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
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