BBC News We spent 40 days in a cave without sunlight or watches
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Fifteen people from various backgrounds have recently left a cave in south-west France after 40 days underground.
The experiment was designed to see how the absence of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect the participants sense of time.
Project director Christian Clot and Marina Lançon, one of the volunteers in the study, told BBC World News about their experience.
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These volunteers spent 40 days in a cave with no sunlight or way to tell time
Montreal s Marina Lançon was one of 15 people who volunteered to spend 40 days in a French cave without any way to tell the time or communicate with the outside world all in the name of science.
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Posted: Apr 27, 2021 5:44 PM ET | Last Updated: April 27
Marina Lançon, pictured in the centre with a blue bandana and gray sweater, emerges from the Lombrives Cave in France with 14 other people after 40 days underground.(Renata Brito/The Associated Press)
The eight men and seven women finished their time with the Deep Time experiment on April 24.
The volunteers emerged from the darkness to enthusiastic cheers and applause, wearing special sunglasses to help their eyes adjust to the first sunlight they’d seen in over a month.
Early reports from the volunteers seem to suggest time moved much slower in the cave.
One volunteer, Marina Lançon, said “it was like pressing pause,” and apparently wouldn’t have minded staying there a few days longer, The Guardian reported.
Project leader, Christian Clot, said for most of the group it felt like they’d only been in the cave for 30 days when it came time for them to leave. He also said he was “a little sad” to leave the cave.
French study examining effects of being cut off from world finds time seemed to pass more slowly for participants as they lived underground, deprived of clocks or sunlight
Fifteen people have come out of a cave in southwestern France, where they spent 40 days without daylight, clocks and communication with the outside world as part of an experiment to study how well humans can adapt to isolation. The experience of being so shut off from the world was (surprisingly) an enjoyable one, one of the 15 volunteers said and several added they wanted to stay in the cave longer. “It was like pressing pause,” said Marina.