- The containment period in France was extended until April 15 due to the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic.
- Reclusive at home for three weeks, Michel Siffre knows this situation after having lived alone for several months in caves for scientific purposes.
- The 81-year-old Nice adventurer delivers the lessons he learned from them to 20 Minutes .
The Nice speleologist and scientist, Michel Siffre, is one of the forerunners of human chronobiology. In 1962, he spent two months at the bottom of the Scarasson abyss in the Marguareis, 70 km from Nice, without contact with the outside. This “timeless” experience has brought it international renown. In 1972, NASA called on him to descend for 205 days to the Midnight Cave, in Texas. In 1999, he tried the underground experiment one last time in the Clamouse cave, in the Hérault. For 20 Minutes , the Riviera explorer puts into perspective the current confinement, his adventures in the background.
What parallel do you draw between the current confinement experience and those you experienced during your scientific expeditions?
There is a fundamental difference between what we suffer today and what I have suffered. In my case, it was on my own initiative. There we are forced. Forced confinement is like when you are put in prison, you lose your freedom.
During my experiences, I did not really feel the weight of confinement. I was so intellectually motivated that it was fine. Confinement is mainly a question of motivation.
When does containment become difficult to bear?
Overall, during the experiments I set up, containment really started to be felt after one to two months. Fifteen days, three weeks, in my opinion, is still not enough to be meaningful. During my six months underground in Texas in 1972, I fell apart after two months. The next four were terrible. There I was really in confinement. I had a platform of a few square meters where I went back and forth. In addition, I was tied by an umbilical cord which joined surface recording devices. There, I suffered a lot from the lack of space, the impossibility of making movements although I had an ergometric bicycle.
It was at the brain level that it went wrong. At some point, you lose your illusions, you tell yourself that it's screwed up. And then you put it into perspective. You say to yourself: "I'm here, I have to hold on." I was lucky not to falter but currently, I understand that people after a fortnight, a month of confinement, can give in, go out and go and buy things they would not need. The problem is that today we do not know what the total duration of confinement will be.
What advice can you give not to falter?
You have to be intellectually dynamic. During my experiences, my brain was always in motion, even during periods of depression. Today, I advise to develop your passions. Someone who is a musician must make music, a designer must write, a writer must write,…
Reading is also fundamental. In 1962, I only read two books: The Memoirs of General de Gaulle and the Shipwrecked Volunteer by Alain Bombard. On the other hand, in 1972, I read forty: classics like Les Trois Mousquetaires and a lot of Balzac. Balzac fascinated me, because when I read it during my confinement, I saw the scenes. I turned pages into images like filmmakers do. Right now, I'm reading Commander-in-Chief of Tom Clancy and La Panthère des neiges by Sylvain Tesson.
Finally, we must be positive. The past is the past. I won one day, OK. Now you have to hold on as long as possible. Fear nothing. Really play its part.
Our file on containment
Your experiences have made it possible to develop chronobiology. Can the current period of confinement affect our biological rhythm?
Yes of course. Sleep possibilities are no longer the same. Part of the people are afraid. It can prevent you from sleeping, and as soon as you touch sleep, you influence the biological clock. In normal life, we have a 24-hour rhythm because we are rhythmic with society and the day / night rhythm. In my experiments, it has been shown that the human's internal clock is always longer, ranging from 24:30 to 25 hours.
Should we then keep a routine or follow our biological rhythm?
It depends on each individual. People will argue that it is better to keep the good habits we have, such as waking up and going to bed at the same time. There are others, including myself, who say “let's let time run out”. The individual will adapt on his own. His rhythm will keep pace with the rhythm he needs. It all depends on the comfort conditions in which he lives. It is certain that you will not have the same control of your biological rhythm if you are alone in a big house or if you are five or six in a small apartment.
Last question, are you taking advantage of this situation to conduct a new experiment?
No, I think I've given enough (laughs).
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