Polar madness can drive expedition members crazy

I often wondered if polar explorers are crazy. Why? Just imagine being tent bound in a cramped up space for an entire year. Seeing the same faces and listening to the same voices for twenty four hours and 365 days. Recently, researchers studied a condition called polar madness, which happens to members involved in polar expeditions.
This was done in order to understand how the astronauts will cope if send to Mars on a year round space exploration. The North and South poles present harsher conditions to explorers sometimes driving them nuts. These conditions are very much like the ones found in Mars.
Polar madness symptoms are depression, irritability, sleepless nights, anger and conflict with coworkers. Wow! I think that’s a wide range of things to look out for. Expeditionary behavior has always been important for scientists and space junkies. An University of South California scientist Lawrence Palinkas, wrote a paper very recently no the polar madness.
sunmoon
Along with his colleagues, Palinkas interviewed various members of the polar expeditions. They also reviewed chronicles written in the diaries. Palinkas mentioned the aspects of polar disorder:
Polar madness can take a variety of shapes.Some people may have difficulty adjusting to the light-dark cycles, and so they can never get a decent night sleep and experience a sleep disorder. Some people can get clinically depressed.
Although, some are extremely satisfied from the expedition, 40-60% often react negatively. Out of these people, there’s that 5% population who sometimes need serious medical treatment to fix their behavioral problems. The problems can even extend to sheer lunacy and Cannibalism. Yikes! Maybe I should reconsider my polar visit plans.
Back in 1880, only 6 survivors came out alive after the ill fated expedition reached it’s goals. Currently, in Antarctica, about 20 nations are operating about 47 stations. Most of these stations have several hundreds of people who crash in there for several months in a row. Hopefully, they won’t go crazy.These stations are operated by US, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and Russia.

Image Credits: Columbia, Shveik
Tags: North, Pole, Expedition, Polar madness, Travel