How the full moon could make your sleep worse as scientists find link to lunar phases

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A FULL Moon could give you a worse night’s sleep, a new study finds.

Scientists have linked the lunar cycle to sleep patterns – and say the moon’s changing brightness could be to blame for a lack of sleep.

New study suggests moon phases may change how long we sleepCredit: Getty Images – Getty

The news came before a full wolf moon last night, which could cause restless nights for some.

“Moonlight is so bright to the human eye that it is quite reasonable to imagine that in the absence of other light sources, this nocturnal light source could have played a role in the modulation. of human nocturnal activity and sleep, ”researchers at the University of Washington explained.

“However, the question of whether the lunar cycle can modulate human nighttime activity and sleep remains a matter of controversy.”

To find out if the Moon really has an impact on sleep, researchers conducted a study with more than 500 participants.

There are 8 phases in the lunar cycleCredit: Alamy Live News

Each participant wore a bracelet that followed their sleep pattern.

The study included 98 Toba-Qom people from rural Argentina, many of whom lacked access to electricity and artificial light sources.

Their sleep patterns have been compared to 464 people living in the bustling American city of Seattle.

Sleep was monitored on a lunar cycle.

Interestingly, the participants in the sleep study appeared to impact their sleep in the same way through the lunar cycle.

The artificial light sources weren’t as relevant as you might think.

Lead author of Iglesia explained, “We see a clear moon modulation of sleep, with decreased sleep and later sleep in the days leading up to the full moon.

“While the effect is more robust in communities without access to electricity, the effect is present in communities with electricity, including undergraduates at the University of Washington.”

Overall, the data suggests that people get less sleep on the nights leading up to the Full Moon.

These nights, the Moon is brighter after dusk.

The researchers concluded: “Taken together, these results strongly suggest that human sleep is synchronized with the lunar phases regardless of ethnicity, socio-cultural background, and level of urbanization.”

The Moon appears to change shape depending on where it is in orbit

They believe that sleeping less when the Moon is brighter might be an evolutionary trait that helped our ancestors do more when they had brighter light.

The researchers added: “While the true fitness of human activity during moonlit nights remains to be determined, our data appears to show that humans – in a variety of environments – are more active and sleep less in bright light. moonlight is available during the early hours of the night.

“This discovery, in turn, suggests that the effect of electric light on modern humans may have exploited an ancestral regulating role of moonlight on sleep.”

The lunar cycle consists of 8 different lunar phases, each with a different brightness.

The cycle lasts 29.53 days and affects the amount of the Moon we see as it revolves around the Earth.

The Moon appears to be changing shape because its location in orbit impacts the amount of lunar surface illuminated by the Sun.

This then changes the brightness of the Moon.

The phases are new moon, crescent crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbeuse, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent.

A new moon is not visible, so the least bright is and a full moon is fully visible and therefore shines the most.

You can read the full study in Science Advances.

The Moon – our nearest neighbor explained

Here’s what you need to know …

The Moon is a natural satellite – a space body that orbits a planet
It is the only natural satellite on Earth and the fifth largest in the solar system
The Moon is 2158 miles in diameter, or about 0.27 times the diameter of Earth
Temperatures on the Moon range from minus 173 degrees Fahrenheit to 260 degrees Fahrenheit
Experts assumed the Moon was another planet, until Nicholas Copernicus laid out his theory about our solar system in 1543.
It was eventually assigned to a “class” after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
The Moon is believed to have formed around 4.51 billion years ago
The strength of its gravitational field is about one sixth of Earth’s gravity
The Earth and the Moon have a “synchronous rotation”, which means that we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the term “dark side of the Moon”
The Moon’s surface is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky due to its reflective ground
During a solar eclipse, the Moon almost completely covers the Sun. The two objects are similar in size in the sky because the Sun is both 400 times larger and further away
The first spacecraft to reach the moon dates back to 1959, as part of the Soviet Union’s lunar program
The first manned orbital mission was NASA’s Apollo 8 in 1968
And the first manned lunar landing took place in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission.