This is the — dark, cold — time of year when hibernating memes start flying around social media. ‘Wake me up in spring!’ being a classic example.

It’s natural for humans to sleep a bit more in winter. Reduced light exposure tells the body to produce melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleepier. But what if humans really could hibernate?

Some scientists believe that it may be closer than we imagine and could carry an array of potential benefits, from preventing the damage caused by cardiac arrest and stroke, to fending off famine — and even enabling space travel.

Dr Marina Blanco, a research scientist at Duke University in the U.S., who has studied hibernation in dwarf lemurs, told Good Health: ‘Inducing hibernation in humans may be closer to science than to fiction.

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