Can’t sleep? Blame it on the moon! Scientists have found evidence that human sleep patterns are timed to the phases of the moon, and that people sleep 20 minutes less on average during a full moon.
Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon and the study offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans, despite the comforts of our civilised world, still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circa-lunar clock.
“The lunar cycle seems to influence human sleep, even when one does not ‘see’ the moon and is not aware of the actual Moon phase,” said Christian Cajochen of the Psyc-hiatric Hospital of the Un-iversity of Basel.