Stefania Follini

The scientific experiment commenced on January 13, 1989.[2] It was organised by Pioneer Frontier Explorations[3] and NASA.[4] It took place in the "Lost Cave" in New Mexico.[5] Inside her 20-by-12-foot (6.1 by 3.7 m) acrylic glass room, away from all cues to the normal 24-hour daily cycle, her biological clock drifted away from its regular rhythm to following first a 28-hour day,[5] and later on a 48-hour one.[3] She started staying awake for up to more than twenty hours and sleeping up to ten hours at a time. Her only companions were her guitar,[6] a computer, two "friendly mice"[1] named Giuseppe and Nicoletta,[4] a few frogs,[5] and grasshoppers.[7] During the course of the experiment, she was reported to have felt gloomy, with no human to cheer her up.[5] Her only mode of communication was via the computer terminals.[8] To curb her boredom, Follini would decorate the cave with cutouts made from cardboard.[7]

With her slowed-down daily cycle, her meals were more spread out and she lost 17 pounds (7.7 kg) in weight.[7] Follini mostly fed on beans and rice, which partially resulted in her losing vitamin D.[4] She reported that at one point her menstrual cycle had stopped. She regularly did judo to maintain her strength and flexibility.[1] When she finally emerged from the cave at the experiment's end on May 22, 1989,[9] and was asked to guess the date, she estimated that it was March 14[9] or 15[4] — only two months from the start of the experiment instead of the four that had actually transpired.[1] She was described as "looking pale and thin" after coming out from the cave.[2] Having spent about 130 days in the cave, she broke the world record for women for the most number of days spent in isolation in a cave.[10]