Get paid to stay in bed

Something for the weekend…

If, like me, you’re struggling to get up today after hitting the floor for two days at Employee Benefits Live, how about landing a job where you can be paid to stay in bed?

Well, if you apply for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (Nasa) bed-rest study research programme, you could be doing just that.

The space experts at its Flight Analog Research Unit in Texas, are looking for healthy layabouts to stay tucked up in bed for up to 10 weeks to help investigate the physical changes that can occur to astronauts in space.

Successful applicants will be paid £6,849 for just 70 days of work and can read, watch television, take a study course or even carry on with their normal job, all from the comfort of a bed. There’s even a modified shower so you don’t even have to get up to wash.

There is a slight hitch, though. You can’t move from the bed at all and lying down for such a long period of time can cause you to lose muscle mass and bone density, a major health concern for astronauts spending weeks or months in zero-gravity conditions.

But let’s be honest. You are helping Nasa, so who wouldn’t be up for a 10-week-long paid lie in?