After five days in a dark cave, a scienist emerged with life-changing insights

Kiana Aran wore a mask as she emerged from the dark cabin. On her forehead is a neuroverse sensor monitoring her brain signals. (Supplied: Kiana Aran)

Wellness retreats around the world are offering what's becoming an increasingly popular experience: nothing.

Several days and nights spent in a plush "darkness cabin" with no light, sound, entertainment or external interaction aside from the meals delivered to the room via a light-sealed box. The sensory deprivation experience, one retreat in Poland says, will lead to a profound question: "Who am I?"

When US-based bioengineer Kiana Aran decided to try it, several experts warned her against it. "What they told me was scary but also got me more excited to see what happens," Aran told ABC Life Matters. Aran, who designs technologies to capture complex biological information used for health research, was less interested in discovering herself than in being the subject of her own scientific experiment. She wanted to find out what the removal of external stimuli would do to her body, she wrote in Nature.

So, she entered a cabin in Poland — which is built into the side of a hill and elegantly furnished with cushions, a bed, and a small area to sit in soft, natural-tones — wearing sensors to capture data about her sleep patterns, glucose levels, heart rate and blood pressure, and carrying swabs and vessels to measure her microbiome.

After leaving the darkness cabin Kiana Aran wanted to swim in a frozen lake. "I wanted to feel life again," she said. (Supplied: Kiana Aran)

At first, the solitude was luxurious. Aran had a good night's sleep and being disconnected from her phone and laptop gave her a sense of calmness. "But then by day two I was just asking myself how I could survive, why time wasn't passing," she says. "I didn't know if it was day or night, my circadian rhythm completely shifted; it became extremely difficult by day three."

Traveller magazine calls darkness retreats one of the wellness trends of 2026. NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers spent four days at a darkness retreat mulling over retirement. Crypto founder Charles Hoskinson said he left his darkness retreat early because of "terrifying shadows gnawing at my soul, sleep paralysis demons, and inability to breathe in the cave". And writer Chris Colin chronicled being "rattled by the pure chaos" of the visions he saw during his darkness retreat for the New York Times: "I was doing the simplest thing imaginable — just being alone with myself, doing nothing — and it was overwhelming."

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