Does the moon really affect our mood or is it just a myth? Study reveals lunar phases can play a role in how we sleep

Daily Mail: Always surrounded by an aura of mystery, the moon and its possible influence over human behaviour has been object of ancestral fascination and mythical speculation for centuries. While the full moon can't turn people into werewolves, some people do accuse it of causing a bad night's sleep or creating physical and mental alterations.

But is there any science behind these myths?

To establish if lunar phases affect humans, an international group of researchers studied children to see if their sleeping patterns changed or if there were any differences in their daily activities.The research studied a total of 5,812 children from five continents.The children came from a wide range of economic and sociocultural levels, and variables such as age, sex, highest parental education, day of measurement, body mass index score, nocturnal sleep duration, level of physical activity and total sedentary time were considered.

Data collection took place over 28 months, which is equivalent to the same number of lunar cycles. These were then subdivided into three lunar phases: full moon, half-moon and new moon.

The findings obtained in the study revealed that in general, nocturnal sleep duration around full moon compared to new moon reported an average decrease of five minutes (or a one per cent variant)...>>>Read more...