People blame a lot of things on the full moon, crazy behavior, mood and sleep patterns. A study done in Switzerland shows that these accusations may not be unfounded. Here’s more from WebMD:
“This is a fascinating and more robust confirmation of an earlier study,” said Professor Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University.
“The effect is probably due to an internal ‘circalunar clock’ inside our brain, and not a direct effect of moonlight itself. Other animals also show something similar, and for us it seems to be a carry-over from ancient times when we were more dependent on moonlight, enabling us to see at night and spend less time asleep during the full moon, when more of our predators might be out and about, or to give us more nighttime hunting opportunities. In our evolutionary terms, this was not very long ago.”
Are there steps people can take to get better sleep around a full moon? Cajochen thinks not.
“We have to somehow accept that we don’t sleep as well during full moons as opposed to other lunar phases. It’s a characteristic that you cannot easily change,” he said.
The researchers said it could turn out that the moon has power over other aspects of our behavior as well. Cajochen said that although the study looked at sleep, there were hints of other effects from the moon: “We also gathered other data, such as how many dreams they [participants] had, and also cognition. So it could also be that the lunar phase, besides sleep, can impact on your feeling, mood, and cognitive performance. But this has to be tested in very similar circumstances as we did for sleep.”
The report appears in the journal Current Biology.
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