So far, from the scientific point of view there is no unanimous and conclusive opinion, if and if yes which influence full moon is having on our sleep. Many scientists even are of the opinion that it is actually zero. But, two studies independently found proofs for an influence.
A study of a Swiss team of scientists proofed that the moon does influence the sleep. They newly evaluated an already closed sleeping study, where different aspects of the sleep-wake-cycle had been tested. There, they discovered that it took the test persons 5 minutes longer to fall asleep and in total slept 20 minutes less on full moon nights. The production of the sleeping hormone melatonin was lowered, too.
In November 2014, an article of Hungarian scientists of the Semmelweis University, Budapest, was published in the journal “sleep medicine”. These scientists, too, found proofs, that an influence of the full moon existed in their studies: 224 persons undertook their study in alternating moon, 47 with full moon and 48 with new moon. To exclude a distortion of the findings by statistical outliers, they used the mean value for determining and not the average. The findings made it clear: in nights with full moon, sleep efficiency was compared to nights with new moon and alternate moon clearly lower: 74 % (full moon) compared to 82 % (new moon as well as alternate moon). The duration of deep sleep was significantly lower, as well: full moon 6 %, new moon 9 % and alternate moon 11 %. The only value that was higher on full moon, was the onset-time for REM-sleep: with full moon the mean value was 137 minutes, with new moon 98 minutes and with alternate moon 97 minutes.
This clearly shows, that sleep-relevant characteristics absolutely may be connected with full moon.
Imagesource: @aboutpixel
This post is also available in / Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch in: German
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