Mental Health in Space: How Astronauts Take Care of Their Mind During Missions

The proverb healthy mind, healthy body is a famous Latin quote that expresses the importance of extending kindness from your body to your mind.

Being an astronaut requires a constant focus on many stimuli and high concentration, which can cause long-term damage to the nervous system and lots of stress. To counteract the pressure and improve a positive and healthy mindset, our brave explorers practice many different and dynamic activities that can help them to live with a positive mindset. These habits are very simple but effective and we can reproduce them at home too!

Physical activities

On Earth, when we practice physical activities, like sports or fitness, we feel happier, stronger and alive. Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), sport is a must for the astronauts!

As much as sci-fi movies might have shown you otherwise, astronauts aren’t training for an alien encounter — but to move their body as a fundamental part of their routine.This is fundamental due to microgravity, the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless.

Outside of planet Earth, all objects, including our bodies, float due to free fall, a phenomenon that explains the condition of moving freely in an environment in which gravity, and nothing else, is causing acceleration. Due to a lower gravitational force, bones and muscles become more fragile because they don’t have to support the body weight anymore.

Astronauts have to do-high intensity exercises to avoid early atrophy, a physiological process which causes the progressive decline of muscle tissue. On space flights that last 5 to 11 days, astronauts have to fight against a 20% loss of muscle mass. This is a very dangerous loss because losing muscle mass means losing lots of strength, and risking extreme weakness when they return to Earth's gravitational field.

The problems don’t stop there: in the microgravity environment of space, astronauts have to face the loss of 1-2% of their bone mineral density every month, increasing enormously the risk of fracture.

So, the Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Control on Return Experiments from the International Space Station (CCISS) confirmed that weightlessness on the Station reduces heart rate. During a six-month space mission, an astronaut's cardiovascular system can age by up to 10 or 20 years.

How do they exercise? During long missions they must exercise two hours per day and at ISS exercise machines have been modified to stimulate a gravitational force on astronauts’ bodies. The crew members use three cardiovascular and muscular exercise machines to stay in shape:

Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED): a machine that maintains muscle strength and bone density, allowing exercises like heel lifts, squats and deadlifts, that allow astronauts to lift up to 272 kilograms.
The treadmill: this tool is very useful to maintain the cardiovascular systems at work, as the muscular and skeletal. There is a harness that puts a weight on the shoulders and hips of the astronaut, going from 60% to 80% of body weight, during the mission.
The stationary bike: very useful for the hearth and it doesn’t require a seat so you can stand up and pedal.

There is a new entry that has been added to ISS gym: the flywheel. The astronauts that will take part in the Artemis II mission, a journey towards the moon, will use this device that works like a yo-yo and allows aerobic exercises and resistance workouts.

All of these machines help crew members of ISS to improve their physical health and maintaining their bodies in movement is a beautiful way to gain endorphins.

Keeping up with hobbies

The weeks spent among the stars are built to be similar as much as possible as the one on Earth. Astronauts have to work for 5 days and they can rest during weekends. When it’s time to relax, they enjoy reading books, playing instruments, listening to music and drawing. They have access to devices for watching movies, shows, playlists, podcasts and audiobooks. They meditate and practice their religious traditions.

These habits don’t feel so otherworldly when we compare them to our own meditations on Earth . To feel safe, calm and grounded, astronauts try to keep their daily hobbies alive to create a safe space to forget negativity and fears, and feel a bit more at home.

Journaling

One particular habit that astronauts stick to is deceptively simple: writing. Indeed, journaling helps crew members discover their feelings and thoughts, which lately have been analyzed by the Journals clinic investigation to identify hard struggles related to astronauts’ mental health and well-being in and out of missions. Most journals contained ten categories of items: work, outside communications, adjustment, group interaction, recreation/leisure, equipment, events, organization/management, sleep, and food. The report of the research gave astronauts some helpful tips that could help them during long term missions.

Research conducted by NASA in 2024 showed that long-duration microgravity doesn’t aggravate fine motor skills inflight, as stimulated by simple tasks on a touchscreen. Indeed, on a daily basis, astronauts interact with the computers, iPads, and small controls to perform their job.

However astronauts write with a special pen, called the Space Pen. It debuted in October 1969 for Apollo 7 and it was created by Paul Fisher. The Fisher Space Pen is still used nowadays because ordinary pens easily break off and float away.

Sweet dreams

Sleeping only for a few hours doesn’t help our nervous system stay calm, so it’s important to create the perfect environment that allows astronauts to have a proper rest. A lack of quality sleep can cause high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and depression. Getting enough sleep is the key for building a healthy lifestyle.

The European Space Agency is doing experiments to test the Circadian light, a new lighting system that can provide astronauts a more normal circadian rhythm, which is the body’s natural 24-hour clock and lets us live on a healthy wake-sleep cycle.

They introduced a LED panel that automatically and gradually changes the light spectrum that simulates natural conditions on Earth. The experiment studies the light’s effects on the relationship between sleep and stress and the results of this research could also help to find a way to improve lighting for shift workers and those in extreme environments.

All for one

The Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who works for the European Space Agency (ESA) showed us in a series of videos the importance of friendship and connections while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Crew members share fun moments of relaxing together, eating, playing and watching ⁠movies together. These astronauts are extremely supportive and encouraging toward each others’ interests especially during tough times. They even celebrate holidays and birthdays together — and have become very good at creating space cakes!

It’s also vital to keep in touch with loved ones at home. To facilitate these kinds of conversations, astronauts have the opportunity to speak to their families on a daily basis thanks to the voiceover IP phone system, a tool that allows astronauts to dial any phone number on the surface of the planet.

Once a week, the psychological support team organizes a videoconference so they can see their families and feel connected. For example, CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques used to read bedtime stories to his three children during his mission, and it gave him a sense of normality.

Maintaining balance between work and rest is a lesson that will protect us in every galaxy and even if the distance from planet Earth will rise during the future missions, we shouldn’t forget that the strength and the power to start these intriguing adventures come from a connection with our inner-self . Staying healthy is fundamental and listening to our body and mind will bring us very further away.

Psychological and medical support

Asking for help is crucial, even at the ISS.

Astronauts can schedule calls with a psychologist every two weeks.

Private consultations have been very effective in low earth orbit, but the further the missions will be launched, the more difficult it will be to provide for those meetings. For example, a Mars mission could cause a communication delay of up to 30 minutes and in such cases, astronauts should be able to use other tools that allow for real-time mental health support.

To resolve the challenges due to connection problems, many psychologists have discussed the possibility of introducing an automated psychotherapy system. This type of therapy, sometimes called computer-mediated psychotherapy or cybertherapy offers a series of computer-delivered modules that explain applicable psychological terms to the therapy client, measuring the symptoms and progress of the patient, and delivering homework tasks and the necessary training to complete those tasks.

Useful psychological services for astronauts include pre-mission psychological training and exercises of mindfulness and relaxation training. Equally important is the presence of flight surgeons, who can speak to the astronauts every two weeks. They aren’t the same as regular surgeons, but these professionals are responsible to check on the mental and physical conditions of astronauts. Their job doesn’t stop here—as a matter of fact, they also provide medical support during training and space missions and they advocate for a calm and safe environment, as well as provide post-flight rehabilitation.

Yours truly,

Alice Coppini

Writer, Writers Team