The Big Sleep

Astronauts would like to hibernate on the way to the outer planets; rich men would like to have their dead bodies frozen for a later cure; surgeons would like to put some of their patients into hibernation as a means of buying time; and many of us wish we could sleep through the winter like bats or hedgehogs just because it's such a cosy idea.

A look at the world's leading hibernation research projects shows that the apparently simple business of dozing off for the winter is, in fact, an extremely difficult trick to learn. The only hope is that the whole process is triggered by a special 'hibernation hormone'. It hasn't been found yet, but more than one laboratory is hot on the trail.

Narrator: TONY BRITTON
Film editor: CHRISTINE GARNER
Editor: SIMON CAMPBELL-JONES
Written and produced by STUART HARRIS