People often complain of worse sleep around the full moon, but until now scientists have been skeptical.
But now there’s scientific evidence for a link between the moon’s cycle and human sleeping patterns. It comes from a new study published in Current Biology from researchers at the University of Basel:
Vitally, the participants slept in tightly controlled conditions with no access to the current time. They could not see the moon from where they slept and they did not know what the study was about.
This is what they found:
Summing up the research, Professor Christian Cajochen said:
The fact that this study does find a connection—despite chiming with the popular imagination—is something of a surprise to scientists.
Many previous studies have failed to detect associations between the moon’s phase and human behaviours. For example, purported links with psychiatric hospital admissions, suicides, crisis calls and epileptic seizures have not stood up to scientific analysis.
So how could the phase of the moon affect us, even though our species is no longer exposed to the elements?
The researchers think it may be because we have a kind of ‘moon clock’ inside us that tracks its cycles and affects our hormone levels. This is in addition to the better known circadian rhythms which affect many bodily processes during the day.
Presumably this connection evolved over the hundreds of thousands of years when the moon’s cycles were more important for our survival.
About the author
Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology.
He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2003) and several ebooks.
Kayode Emmanuel Ojo is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at SHEFFA Limited. He is presently studying Computer Science at the National Open University, Victoria Island, Lagos.