I had taken a sleeping pill the previous week. Seems they stay in your system for up to 6 weeks, and even though it wouldn’t be a problem for me to just not use them for 5 more weeks, by then the deadline would be over.
He also asked how I got them. Naturally, you can only get them by being diagnosed with insomnia, which classifies as a psychiatric disorder. The Mars-One exam also forbids any psychiatric disorders so he considered that to be strike 2.
I explained that that was years ago and I only keep the pills around for rare cases in which I need to change my schedule, due to jet lag, weird acting schedules, etc., and that I could easily get undiagnosed by the same doctor if I simply took the time to do it.

Well, that's not a story to be proud of, really.

Either you have either been spiked last evening, or you lied to the examiner. Plus, you have give the textbook quote of a drug addict (which makes it more likely that you lied). And still, they let you pass. Scary.

You know, no addict needs the drug, and they all only keep it around for rare occasions. And certainly they could stop any time and pass a test, if need be. Every addict's story is that it was years ago they last used, but then it turnd out they used yesterday.

Benzodiazepines come in a wide variety, and while most (especially the sleep-inducing ones) are below test threshold after 10-12 hours, some may leave measurable traces quite a bit longer (4-5 days). Those are however not commonly prescribed for insomnia, nor do they work against it in any significant way.

Benzodiazepines are detectable for weeks only after you took them regularly for a longer time.

It's most unlikely (and on a quantitative test there is absolutely no way) that "took a pill last week" could make you fail the examination -- unless you lied and really took 5-8 pills, or you took them regularly, or you tried to be super smart ass, going to an examination on Monday morning and said "last week" when you meant to say "yesterday evening".

Personally, I wouldn't have worried much about the positive screening. it is very easy to verify whether you took one pill last week or whether you lied, and it is trivial to test whether you are addicted. But the mere fact that you tried to talk yourself out of it would already have closed the case for me.

It is even more surprising (scary) that the Mars One guys would waive that merely because you wrote them a nice e-mail. Well, they're Dutch, probably been smoking weed this morning... lucky for you.

Mars is an exciting place. In fact there the three Rovers (Curiosity, Opportunity and Spirit) all are powered by batteries that I helped build and design.

It would be very cool to go to Mars. It would be even cooler to come back to talk about it. I wouldn't want to be part of the first group to attempt to colonize Mars. Not to mention spending the 8 years prior earth-bound in isolation eating only freeze-dried food. To FINALLY get the opportunity to travel through space only to spend the rest of your life doing uncomfortable labor, again in isolation and again eating only freeze-dried food. In cramped quarters with other isolationists.

I'd like to just orbit the moon or even just enter the atmosphere. I'm into space travel for the views not the labor or escape from humanity.

Personally, I think you're screwed if they ever find this thread: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/649387-sleepwalking/

Randomly doing things in your sleep sounds pretty much like the worst characteristic an astronaut could have.

I think it'd be useful to have an astronaut who can do a spacewalk while still in long-term hibernation, incase of emergencies.

Wait, does anyone actually still believe that this whole Mars One thing is ever going to actually make it to Mars? You know, given the fact they don't have nearly enough money or technology to actually get it done without killing everyone involved, with "quick" or "slow" being the only question left to answer. I doubt any of the above issues in this thread are going to actually be issues for L. Spiro, considering it's probably going to end up as a season or two of reality TV set at a simulated space training camp, with all the ensuing relationship drama and interpersonal conflicts.

In fact, the issues will probably work out in their favor, since reality TV lives and dies by having issues to create tension among the participants. If everyone were as well-adjusted as would be necessary for an actual Mars mission (though whether any human being is well-adjusted enough to spend months in the kind of tight confinement they would be talking about, without suffering from MAJOR breakdowns, is another question) then those well-adjusted people would make for the most awful, boring reality TV EVER, something completely counter to the whole idea of reality TV.

Failure can serve as an example to others of what not to do. So even if the project fails, it has value. On the other hand, doing nothing will accomplish nothing and teach nothing. So why not give it a shot?

Personally, my bets for failure are on either being due to some form of political intervention that cancels the mission before it's off the ground or due to one or more of the colonists experiencing psychological disorders caused by isolation after having spending some time on Mars (maybe 2 or 3 months after landing depending on intensity level of work required at the time).

That being said, my hopes are for success.

Congratulations L. Spiro on passing the medical. If it turns out you're on TV as a result, I'll probably check it out if for no other reason than to say, "Hey, I know about that guy!"