[ad_1]
On average, participants went to bed 30 minutes later and slept 50 minutes less the nights before the full moon, said study co-author Horacio de la Iglesia, professor in the university’s biology department. from Washington to Seattle.
The researchers fitted each participant with a wrist-based sleep monitor to track sleep schedules during one to two lunar cycles. A lunar cycle takes 29.5 days to complete.
Ninety-eight people from three different indigenous Toba communities, also known as the Qom people, in Argentina participated in the study.
Moonlight after sunset is bright in the days leading up to a full moon, said study co-author Leandro Casiraghi, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Washington’s Department of Biology.
“We believe this modulation is intended to take advantage of those moonlit nights which may be good for safe outdoor activities such as hunting or fishing, or for engaging in social interactions with other groups.” Casiraghi said via email.
One community did not have access to electricity, one had some access to electricity, and one had full access to electricity. Regardless of their access to electricity, there was a strong pattern that showed they all went to bed later and slept less in the days leading up to the full moon.
In the urban community, participants went to bed even later and slept less than participants in rural communities. Casiraghi said he was surprised that the urban community was affected as he hypothesized that only people from rural communities would be affected by the lunar phases.
“The fact that this modulation was present even in communities with full access to electric light suggests that these effects are mediated by something other than the moonlight itself,” Casiraghi said.
After collecting sleep data from Toba / Qom communities, the researchers compared their results to sleep data collected from 464 Seattle students for another study and found the same sleep pattern.
Biology of people and a community social models could also play a role in the sleep cycle found in this study, said Dr Vsevolod “Seva” Polotsky, director of basic sleep research and professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School, who was not involved in the study.
People’s sleep is controlled by our circadian rhythm, an internal clock that regulates sleep for about 24 hours, but some people could have longer internal clocks, Polotsky said.
A woman’s menstrual cycle, he said, is a prime example of the human body regulating itself over a longer period, which lasts for about a month. Other mammals have seasonal sleep schedules and hibernate for months at a time, Polotsky noted.
Social calendars can also affect someone’s sleep schedules, he said, such as going to bed later or sleeping more on weekends.
For people who have trouble falling asleep, de la Iglesia recommended avoiding bright lights and screens during the evening hours and being especially proactive before a full moon when “most people are predisposed to. have delayed sleep and shorter sleep ”.
[ad_2]
Source link