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Sleep will be a key part of making commercial space stations feel homey, says Anastasia Prosina, founder of space consultancy firm Stellar Amenities and a commercial space-habitat-development consultant based in California. That's because of the potentially disruptive effect of seeing 15 or 16 sunsets and sunrises every 24 hours. "If you think about luxurious experiences, you want to make sure people feel okay," she says. "Sleep quality is something astronauts speak very openly [about]." Options for improving shut-eye in orbit include using controlled lighting inside the station to simulate a sunrise and sunset at the start and end of the traditional day, maintaining some semblance of a diurnal cycle.Illustration by Kyle Bean, from "How to Vacation in Space" by Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, May 2026. © 2026 Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.